Careful Little Eyes What You See
by Ariyah's rider
Summary: Orion was planning on a new start, a chance at a normal life, a step back from the mass chaos her story had been. But, even the best plans can very easily go awry. Wherever she goes, trouble awaits her, this time in the form of a few superheroes and their enemies. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure, this soldier isn't done fighting yet.
1. Chapter 1

_**Prologue: End of an Era**_

Orion watched with wet eyes as the little blue box that had taught her so much faded away for the last time. Over her shoulder was slung a worn military bag, black lettering fading on the green background, old words reading "US Air Force". It was packed full of the things that made up her life, clothes mostly, a few medals she'd earned over the years, some gifts from friends. Across her chest was another bag, smaller, lighter. A bag of tricks, holding her guns, bullets, computer, and some other things she should not have. In her hand was an old acoustic guitar case. She turned slowly, walking down the ally out to a familiar scene. New York City streets, the world she'd grown up in. But this was not the same New York she'd been raised in. This was a different one, a different world. This was what she'd asked for, a new start, a clean slate, all in a world she had never known. The Doctor was kind enough to give her that, and with a little help from her knowledge of world hopping, Orion had come here, God knows where.

She slipped into the familiar churning masses of the City, out onto the noisy streets she knew well. The year was 2012, the date, May 2st. Orion Cooper was 28 years old now, though the number was surmised, she had long forgotten her real age. But that happened, in a time machine. Time just, didn't exist, she had lived outside of it. It would be good to get back to the slow road. It would be good to stop fighting aliens every other day, and it would be good to relax. The red head smiled to herself, thinking that for the first time in a long time, nobody would be looking to her to save them, for the answer, for a last minute rescue. She could get used to that. She could fade into the background again. She wiped one of her electric blue eyes, trying not to think on the friends she'd left behind in that box. It was hard to leave that world. The world of excitement and danger and adventure, the world of a box, bigger on the inside that was alive and traveled in space and time, the world of the madman who owned it, the world that every child who has ever wondered what's up in the stars longs for.

But it tired her, drained her. Life on the run, that's all it was to her now. She just needed to _be_, for a time. Go back to simplicity.

It felt good to breath the air of the City again, dirty as it might have been. Even the worst of places, when it is home, is like gold. She sighed, happy she could finally stop covering her accent so she could be understood by a bunch of limeys. She reached into her pocket, pulling out a wallet, full of enough money to last her a while. She would have to get a job, make a life for herself. She was finally living. That was good.

For Orion, it was the end of an era. But it was also the beginning of a whole new one.

* * *

_**Ok, so this is an Avengers story, honest to God. The first chapter, and some of the second, will revolve around Orion herself, setting her up in the world she's in now. To note, the release date for **__**The Avengers**__** (at least where I live) was May 4, 2012. So, I am taking this for the date of the events as well. It fits into the timeline and setting of the movie, so just with it. If anyone has superior information, feel free to notify me.**_

_** Quick thing on Orion's origins, she comes from the Stargate Universe originally, then spent time with the Doctor after a world hopping incident. But Orion is trying to leave her past behind her, so mostly it will be forgotten. And for future reference Orion's name is pronounced like Oh-Ryan, just so we're clear.**_

_** ~Ariyah's Rider**_


	2. Ch 2:Integration

_**Chapter 1: Integration**_

A pair of bright blues eyes opened, nearly glowing in the dark before the dawn. Their owner blinked, then sat up, leaning on the back of the bench she had claimed as her bed for that night. She stretched her arms high above her head, letting out a silent yawn. The dark of night wrapped all around her, sitting on a park bench waiting for the new day to come. She put hers arms back into her lap, shoulders curled in on themselves as her cold metal dog tags unstuck themselves from her skin under her shirt, her mother's wedding ring leaving a deep circle imprint where it had lay on her chest. She looked at the ground, breathing lightly, little else to do. She bore little reason to do anything, the City outside the park that surrounded her quietly stirring still, never sleeping. The quiet inside the woods unnerved her, she longed for the cacophony of the city streets. A long brown coat fell around her shoulders, using it only as a blanket. Letting out a sigh, she stood, picking up her things and beginning her walk out of the park. Began the walk to where her life could lie.

Orion knew that her first order of business would be finding a place to live. While life on the streets did not bother her much, she did prefer a roof, four walls, and a bed, perhaps a bathroom. She had grown used to having a little world to call her own since she had joined the Air Force all those ages ago. The hardest thing would be adapting to this new kind of life, finding out what she would have to leave out of her life. Most of her life since 18 had been occupied with either being possessed, experimented on, in a hospital, or fighting aliens. How would she survive, how could she hide the fact that she didn't age at all? Perhaps normal life was something beyond her reach. That was a sad thought.

"Get a hold of yourself, Orion. You'll be fine." She growled to herself. Once on the streets, Orion did not know where to go. She was a bit aimless, pointless. Orion Cooper was a warrior, who for the first time in a long time, had no battles to fight. It was an odd feeling, having nothing to do. She didn't like it, idleness. "Simple goals then, get someplace to live. Maybe some cheap hotel or something." She said to herself. Orion smiled, she could do that.

Orion felt like ripping the newspaper she was reading clean in two. She was brilliant, she had made a machine to allow one of the most advanced ships in the universe to jump between realities, between whole worlds, she could break into the most advanced security systems, and could learn a language in days, but she could not, for the life of her, read well. Of course, never being taught until she was 23 and having dyslexia will do that to a person, but it was stil a distinct aggravation. Looking for adds in the paper was like finding a needle in a enormous haystack, and it was making her loose her mind. Orion looked at her watch, then smiled. Cafés would be open now, and they had Wi-Fi. If Orion knew her way around anything, it was computers. She grabbed her bag, she had emptied it of anything illegal or alien and put it with her guitar and duffle bag in a place she was pretty sure it would be safe enough, and set out to find a good place to start a much more effective online search.

"You waiting on the big guy?" Orion heard a kind voice say. She looked up from her computer quickly, spotting the pretty young thing the voice came from, speaking with one of the shop's customers.

"Ma'am?" He asked, looking up at her. Orion watched now, intrigued by his words and appearance, he looked more lost than she did.

"Iron Man. A lot of people eat here just to see him fly by." The waitress clarified. The customer looked down, the reached into his pocket, pulling out some cash.

"Maybe another time." He said. She poured him more coffee, smiling sweetly.

"Table's yours as long as you like, nobody's waiting on it." She said, turning to leave. "Plus we've got free wireless." The man looked a little confused by her words.

"Radio?" He asked. The waitress sent him a slightly confused look, then turned to her next customer.

"Ask for her number, you moron." The old man behind him remarked, before turning back to his own meal with friends. Orion rolled her eyes, closed her computer and walked over slowly.

"Asking for a waitress's number won't get you very far. Most companies have a policy against accepting numbers from customers." She said, smiling down at him. "And it's wireless Internet, not radios. But we have those too." The man smiled, putting his money back into his pocket.

"I wasn't planning on asking for her number anyway." He said, looking up at her. She towered over him, even though she was not standing at her full 6'4" height. "Thanks for the tip though."

"Not a problem." Orion said. "Nice jacket." She smiled, looking at his old bomber jacket, much like the one she wore. He smiled softly in return. She looked over to the waitress, who was just going inside. "Look, I don't mean to intrude, but you look a little lost over here."

"You could say that." He replied. Orion smiled.

"Wi-Fi, wireless internet. Instant access to the entirety of public information in the whole world from anywhere in the world. And most people use it to look at pictures of cats and start stupid arguments." He laughed, though she could see that he was shocked and a bit shamed by her words. "But you know people will be people. Make more sense now?"

"I think I get it a little more now. Thank you."

"My pleasure." Orion said, standing and going back to her own table. Sitting down, she brought back up her search for a new home. She smiled, soon finding what she was looking for.

Orion sighed, slumping onto the creaky old hotel bed. She'd gathered her other things, and now felt a little more secure in her surroundings. She had changed into clothes more confortable to sleep in, a pair of sweats and another silly t-shirt. She had more of those sarcastic and goofy graphic shirts than she knew what to do with. She laid back against the head board, and clicked on the TV.

"Nobody is quite sure what caused the massive sink hole, some thing it was an earthquake, as tremors were felt in cities around the area. The government has taken over the search of the wreckage, and are being very tight lipped about what is going on…" Orion jerked up off the bed, looking at the pictures of a huge hole in the ground. It was a mess, and looked almost like the ground had imploded on itself, swallowing everything in it's path. She stared at it for a time, absolutely dumbfounded by what she saw. She had seen many things in her time, but she was surprised by what she saw here. She clicked off the TV, and flopped down onto the bed, staring at the ceiling, arm across her forehead. Sleep took her slowly, slipping her mind into a world of mad dreams

_Orion woke, finding herself in her old room in the TARDIS. She frowned, sitting up on her bed. She looked around the room suspiciously. Still confused by her presence there, she sung her legs over the side of the bed. She was wearing the same clothes she had gone to bed in. But she had gone to bed in an old hotel in New York, how did she get to the TARDIS? And why was it so quiet? The TARDIS always had some kind of noise in it, a hum of life. Now there was nothing, just silence. _

_She got off her bed, moving slowly to the door. It was open, and she pushed it outwards slowly, creeping into the empty hall. The world that had once been a safe place was suddenly dark and foreboding, making Orion slink through the halls, as if trying to hide from something. She followed the familiar path to the control room, and found it just as deserted as the rest of the ship. She stood to her full height now, circling the console._

_"Doctor?" She called out, her voice feeling small and frightened. "Donna?" She tried the name of the last companion she had left the Doctor with. "Anyone?" She cried, feeling small, afraid. It was a foreign thing to the tall warrioress, who went into every situation with boldness and fear pushed to the back of her mind, not crippling her but strengthening her. Now fear seemed to wrap its cold fingers around her against her will, strangling her calm. She breathed deeply, and turned around to look out at the door to the outside world. Anything to get out of this place. She ran towards the door, opening it quickly, before turning and shutting it. She faced the blue of the doors for a moment, listening only to the sound of her own breath. Then she turned slowly around to face the outside world. _

_She was confronted by the still familiar brown and green halls of Atlantis. They, like the TARDIS, were strangely devoid of life. She did not know how long she had wanted to walk these halls again, but her joy on seeing them was stifled by their emptiness. She was alone. _

_These halls remained in her mind, like all things did. She saw everything that would be there for the city to run, but none of the lights were on, and they did not light up as she walked by. There was nothing, there was no one._

_The eerie silence was broken by a slight noise behind her. "Who's there?" She called out. No one came forward, and fear trickled down her spine. She cast hasty glances into the shadows that seemed to creep around her, reminding her of the Vashta Narada. That was why the silence scared her, it was to much like the library, to empty. "Stay away from the shadows." She told herself, speaking aloud to break the deafening silence all around her. She speed up her pace, wanting to get away from whatever lurked near her._

_She was running through the halls by the time she got to the control room. All the boards were covered in plastic, but she ripped it off, frantically looking for the DHD. She had to get out, it wasn't safe, she had to get out. She could hear footsteps following her as she rushed to find it. "Oh thank God!" she exclaimed, finding the panel. She tried to enter an address, but it wouldn't react. "No! no, no, no, NO!" She screamed. There was no power! The footsteps grew closer, and in desperation, she hit the DHD as hard as she could. The gate began to dial, and Orion looked up. Footsteps grew closer. The Stargate activated, bathing the room in light. Footsteps paused. Orion didn't even bother to look back, and ran down to the gate, and burst through the gate._

_On the other side, she put her hands on her knees, and breathed. The light of the gate had vanished, and as she turned around she found it was gone, replaced by a pure white hallway. Fear grabbed her, hitting her like a train. She knew this place. This was where they'd taken her, poked her with needles and futzed with her brain. This is where they broke her all over again, made her stronger than any man, made her grown tall and mighty, but turned her helpless in her mind. Made her nearly invincible. Made her the perfect little solider. This was the hell hole she never wanted to see again. Panic lanced through her, again urging her to run for all she was worth. She tried door after door, all of them were locked._

_Then she heard the footsteps again. She tore down the hall, no longer trying to calm her nerves as everything that had ever happened here came flooding through her memory, her cursed eidetic memory. She was breaking down, no where to run, nowhere to hide, no way out, no way out. She ran into another door, this one flew open, leading her to an even more horrifying room. The room where they had done all those terrible things to her. _

_Footsteps came closer._

_Orion ran and hid under the platform in the center of the room._

_Footsteps came into the room._

_She could see the shoes._

_Footsteps stopped in front of her._

_Kneeled down._

_Orion shuddered, she was face to face with him. The Goa'uld who had taken everything from her. Baal. _

_He reached for her, and just as he touched her arm…_

Orion shot upright, drenched in a cold sweat, breathing heavy, mind scattered and each wandering bit gripped by fear. She held a hand up to her face, finding it streaked by tears. She rubbed her eyes, trying to get a hold of her breath. Eventually, she found her lost calm, and slumped her shoulders, hands going into her lap. She shook her head. She was running, being very foolish. Trying to live a normal life was impossible, that had been taken from her. It was stupid to think she could find one, she never would. It was best, then, to stop running, and try to make the best of a bad situation. It didn't have to be bad, really. The life she'd been thrust into by Baal at 18 was better than the one she'd left behind, in some ways. It was dangerous, yes, but so was a lone life for a young girl on the streets. It was hard, given, but so was busking for a living. It was filled with fighting, true, but her life had been a fight since she was born. At least in this life, she had a roof, she had friends for the first time, and she knew where her next meal was coming from. That's what she'd always prayed for, wasn't it? Perhaps, in a way she had not seen, God had answered all those pleading prayers. And in this life, she had the ability to help people. She had been given ability, she had been equipped. It was time for her to step up, perhaps.

She was ok with this. Normal life be damned. No one seemed to like it anyway.

_**So… there's that. The italics is a dream, in case that wasn't clear. It is a sequence of the things that has brought Orion to where she is now. It's a quick history, so to speak. The last bit is her starting to come to grips with the fact that normal life is out of her grasp. **_

_**And that was short… I should write longer chapters…**_

_**~Ariyah's rider.**_


	3. Ch 3: What Are Heroes Made Of?

_**Chapter 2: What Are Heroes Made Of?**_

The second time Orion woke, it was in a much calmer state. Light shined through holes in the blackout curtains in her room, one hitting her right in the eye. She stretched, yawning at length, and slouching back down. The bed creaked with protest as she picked her 187 pound frame off of it and went to the other 25% of the room not occupied by the bed. She reached into her duffle bag and pulled out a new shirt and pair of jeans. She'd slept much better this last night, even with the dreams. Years of living in Atlantis and the TARDIS had made her soft, she supposed. Still, in her mind, a bed was bed. She put her key in her pocket and wandered out to the shared bathroom, finding it happily unoccupied. The water in the shower was a bit below lukewarm, but again, Orion had a high level of tolerance to getting what she paid for in cheap places. Feeling as clean as she could, Orion changed into her new outfit, smirking at what shirt she had picked out. Real heroes wear dog tags. She pulled her own dog tags out from her shirt, but made sure to keep her mother's wedding ring tucked firmly inside. Once back in her room, she put her clothes from yesterday back into her bag and grabbed her knapsack, checking that she had all she needed inside it. Wallet, check; busking permit, check; guitar pick, check; gun, check. All good. She slung on her bomber jacket and grabbed her guitar, walking out of the door.

"Zàijiàn!" Orion called over to the Chinese boy manning the front desk. He looked up and waved back at her, before going back to his work.

Orion felt comfortable once back on the streets of her home city. The Subway was close to the hotel she'd holed up in, and she quickly descended into the subterranean world that she knew very well. She hardly had to look at the directions as she went into the terminal, standing and waiting for her train. Once on the train she sat, guitar on the floor and leaned up against her shoulder, watching the people. She dropped into a routine, whether she wanted to or not, getting off at Grand Central and setting off for Central Park. She smiled, taking in the world around her. Spending so much time with Brits meant too much time in London and not nearly enough in her homeland. She missed it more than she had realized. She found her spot in the Park unoccupied and set up shop, opening her guitar case and pulling out her guitar. She tuned it quickly, then just set off in the first song that came to mind, preparing for a long days playing. The people should just consider themselves lucky she didn't have the delusion she could sing as well as play the guitar.

As she played, she watched the people who passed by. You could always tell who was going to give money and who wasn't. If lovebirds walked by, but the guy was getting a hard time, Orion had the habit of changing to a love song, or something like it. It had started as a gag with her, but she'd had a few appreciative guys give her extra tips, so it became a habit. If a school group walked by, one of two thing would happen; either she would be avoided like plague, or some brave kid would drop half their cash for the day in her case cause their parents had only given them two of whatever bills they had. It was all a game to her, as well as a living. It was something she had once dreamed of being, a guitar player in a rock and roll band. Dreams fade though, so Orion just played in the park as best she could. She saw as one kind lady put a 20 in her case, and looked up, still playing.

"Thanks ma'am." She called. The woman turned around, smiling.

"Thank you." She returned, looking to Orion's dog tags. Orion smiled and nodded in reply. More and more people swept by, some passing quickly, others pausing as they walked, fewer still dropping some money into her case. She gave each one that saw a quick grateful nod. She slipped into the routine of playing and watching. The day was going smoothly up until around 11:30. Then it all dissolved into mass chaos.

Hell broke loose in all of around 50 different ways in a matter of seconds. Orion was an observant person, so a bright blue column of light and energy shooting up to the sky wasn't about to unnoticed. Her guitar made an odd noise as she stared at it, fingers becoming a bit numb in surprise at the sight. She was more confused at what she saw than anything else, even more so when the light terminated in a gaping portal, and _things_ started coming through like a swarm of bees. It didn't take long for Orion to realize what was going on, the city was under attack, from some sort of alien army. _Why the hell is it always aliens? _Orion's mind growled, but they rest of her jumped into action, tearing her out of the stupefied staring and closing her set up, she shoved her guitar into it's case, closing it and placing it on the other side of the wall she had sat on in a mostly futile attempt to hide it. She grabbed her small bag, rummaging through until she found what she was looking for, her gun. She pulled the rather large and frightening desert eagle pistol out, holster and all, putting on the belt and quickly running out of central park. She knew for a fact that mass transit would be mass chaos, so that was a general no go.

Running again. There was always so much running. Luckily for Orion, she had massive strides and moved quicker than, well, humanity in general. Her black combat boots thudded on the ground as she ran as quickly as she could, people flying past her in the other direction, doing the smart thing and running away from the war zone forming in New York. But Orion ran all the faster towards it, she could not run away, she had to do _something_. And she knew what. She was good at portals, she knew how they worked, if she could get to where that thing began from, she could shut it down, probably. Perhaps a bit of a long shot, but it was her best shot.

When she finally got into the disaster area, Orion slowed down, stopping for a moment to try and locate the portal's origins. But her looking up was highjacked by an inhuman screech, and instinct took over, whipping her pistol from her side, aiming and firing before she even registered the ugly face. The creature screamed again, flopping dead to the ground, but it had friends. Orion made nearly everyone of her nine shots count, but there were more than nine of these foul things. She grabbed one of the spear like guns from a corpse, trying to figure out how it worked, before resorting to using it like a baseball bat, slugging the nasty things out of her way. Dropping her gun, now all but useless, back into it's place, Orion resumed her look up, spotting and then making a dash for the building the portal rested on.

When someone grabbed her, Orion felt like punching that someone right in the nose. What stopped her was the outfit, which was red white and blue, very patriotic, and the slightly familiar blue eyes under the mask. _Do I know you?_ Orion wondered as she tore herself out of his grip, which was tighter than expected.

"You can't go up there, Ma'am, you'll get hurt." Orion rolled her eyes. "It's dangerous."

"That is precisely why I'm headed that way. Now if you'll excuse me, I have things to do." Orion ignored his yelling as she ran, arriving at what she knew as the Met Life tower, but was now Stark Tower. A quick glance up told her this was the right place, and she wasted no time getting inside.

Loki had to admit, he was a bit startled when the door crashed open, revealing a tall woman, chest heaving up and down with each breath, blue eyes glowing like the light of the Tesseract. Orion was equally surprised to see a fellow looking like he'd taken a day off from some kind of fanstay novel convention standing in the center of the room, but both tried to take it in stride.

"Hello…" Orion began, slowly walking out into the room. She was wary of this man, he had a crazed and angry look in his blue-green eyes, and her mind was screaming _threat!_ at her like no tomorrow. Something other than this seemed off about him as well, a serious lack of desire, as though he didn't like what was going on outside, but didn't care to stop it either. He gave her a sick smile, and the alarm bells ringing in her head blocked out any complications dealing with his convictions. This fellow was dangerous.

"And you might you be?" He sneered, turning to face her. Orion scrunched up her face and shrugged.

"Nobody important." He smiled and laughed.

"Oh, I know that." Orion pursed her lips in irritation at his remark, eyebrows raised as if to say _really_? "I thought, perhaps a name?"

"You first." Orion shot back, earning her a glare.

"No no, little one. I'm the king here, I give the orders." Orion swore if her eyebrows got any higher, they'd crawl off her face. Suddenly, the man banged his staff thing on the floor, and screamed, "Kneel!" Orion drew back, a thoroughly confused expression on her face as her weight shifted to her heels, body rocking away from the psycho.

"Um, no." She said calmly, but her company didn't remain so under control.

"I said kneel!" He screamed, lunging at her suddenly. Orion's eyes widened, and she very ungracefully scrambled out of the way, turning to face him again, hands up in mock surrender.

"Whoa there, lets just think this through for a second, ok?" She tried, but Loki only snarled at her, trying to grab at her again. Instead of scrambling, this time Orion grabbed the spear, turning and throwing Loki clear across the room. He scrambled up as quickly as he could, seeing Orion throw the spear away like plague.

"Enough! You pathetic mortal you think you can beat me, your god?!" He roared, and then regret for those words surged through him. Orion's blue eyes blazed with an angry fire, false gods were something that made her blood boil.

"You're not a god!" She yelled back, the force and volume of her voice startling Loki. "You're an asshole! With a pointed stick!" She pointed to the scepter on the ground, eyes boring into Loki. "You are no god, and even if you were, you are not _my God_. That place is already occupied." Her voice was low, but Loki shoved the fear of her away, letting the now familiar but once foreign rage consume him as he lunged forward again. She was no match for him.

Orion was able to hold her ground for a time, proving she was much stronger than Loki thought, but Loki was far better trained than the street girl, and he was able to land a terrible blow to her head, sending her flying into the stone bar behind them. He smiled, one less foolish hero to deal with.

The first thing she noticed was that _light hurt_. And her head was spinning like a top. Jeez, that guy hit really hard for having the build of a ramrod. Orion could see where the god-complex came from now, he was very much not human. Which was interesting, but not the most pressing matter. Where was she? Opening her eyes, she saw the telltale signs of medical bay all around her. Oh joy, she hated these, she hated doctors (which was very ironic, really) and she hated being poked with stuff. Her head was wrapped up, but she knew there was no lasting wound, so she pulled it off her head, and sat up slowly.

"Hello?" She called out in a sing song voice. "Anybody home?" A small, brown haired woman came into the room, white doctor's coat coming to about her knees. She had a warm look on her face and her eyes, a kindly look. "Hi." Orion said, waving rapidly so her hand was nearly a blur. The doctor smiled back at her, then flipped up a page on her charts.

"You got hit in the head." She said, letting the paper slip through her fingers back onto the clip board. "But no concussion."

"I pretty tough." Orion smirked, swinging her legs over the side of the bed she had been on. "Where exactly am I?"

"You are in the SHEILD Helicarrier medical bay. The Avengers found you in Tony Stark's tower after the fight." The woman informed her quietly.

"Right…you gonna do something with me?" The doctor smiled at her, nodding quickly.

"Come, follow me."

Orion sat, slouched in the uncomfortable metal chair provided for her, one hand draped in the arm rest, the other holding up her head as the elbow slowly slipped to falling off the metal of chair. Her one of her legs was tucked beneath the other thigh, the other knee resting itself on the table edge, keeping the large frame of its owner from sliding out if her seat. She did not look worried, in fact, she looked bored, bright blue eyes searching the room for something to do as her face scrunched up into her right eye, keeping it mostly closed as the other one openly roved the room. She was not unhappy or displeased, though she had been a bit unnerved at first in the stark white room, but now she had a look of calm patience on her face, waiting for whatever might come, not even bothering to speculate with that thing would be. Not a care in the world as she sat in an interrogation room, a place that made most people at least a little jittery.

The inside was reflected on the outside perfectly, that was how it always was with her. Not that she couldn't hide her thoughts, she just chose not to, honesty had always served her well enough, and the bluntness and carefree way she went about most things hadn't killed her yet. Orion was bored, the room was boring, the lights were boring, the cameras were boring. She'd been making faces into them a while ago, but it was probably more entertaining for the people watching than for her. Even the table and chairs were boring, steel metal made up everything, Orion felt like she'd either gone forward or backward in time, though if the lights were any judge it was backwards. Everything that wasn't stainless steel was white, which she did not like. White reminded her of her horror story a little too much, but she'd gotten over the crippling fear of the color of colorlessness long ago. At the moment, it simply annoyed her because she felt like she was in a prison and a hospital at the same time, both places she had never been fond of. But, for the time being, she was content to wait, sit in silence and perhaps unnerve these people into coming to talk to her.

When someone did finally walk into the room, Orion hardly moved. She hadn't shifted her postion at all, but all that moved to acknowledge the presence of the man was her electric blue eyes, shifting over to look at him. He was a tall, black man, decked out in black leather and black everything, even an eyepatch. He was doing his best to make her uncomfortable, unnerved, so he could get to know her a little more, but Orion was supremely difficult to unsettle, having seen far more frightening things, faced things like this before.

He carried nothing into the room, standing at the door for a moment, staring at the nonchalant woman in the chair across the room and table from him. There was short glare match between them, though Fury was doing the glaring and Orion more or less looking, maintaining a lack of true interest in him. She was throughly bored with the situation, and had been for a long time.

"You gonna ask me questions or just stare at me?" She grumbled, letting her hand off her face, falling forward so it hung limply in the air, leaving behind a red blotch on her face where it had once sat.

"Question you." The man replied. Orion took a deep breath through her nose, shifting her body so she leaned back in the chair, legs propped up on the table, arms crossed behind her back. When Fury didn't begin, she moved a hand forward, waving in circles to tell him to get on with it. "What's you name?"

"Orion Cooper." She sighed, looking at the ceiling again. She really didn't care for things like this, government bureaucrats always annoyed her, except Woolsy. Woolsy had gotten his head on straight after he got to Atlantis.

"Is that your first name?" Fury asked.

"It is."

"The one your parents gave you?" He asked coldly, not believing her. Sure, Orion was an odd name, but really, he assumed she was making it up.

"I assume so, unless it was my uncle, but he hated me and never called me by name so..." Orion shrugged loosely, jostling her head a bit as her gaze still went up to the ceiling.

"Where are you from?"

"New York. Born in the Bronx, moved into the city for money. I grew up on the streets, homeless, busking for money." She mumbled.

"So you can go under the radar very well, because there is quite literally, no record of you." Fury replied, gaining a nod from Orion. "So, where did you get your...abilities?"

"I don't exist, there is no one to help me out there. Some people, they take advantage of people who haven't got a friend." Orion replied. "Little horror story, but don't worry, they paid in full."

"There's something your not telling me."

"I was in the Air Force. I was a damn good pilot. I was mostly covert stuff, I got medals. But, they turned on me. So higher ups, some lunatic somewhere wanted to make some perfect little robot soldier. When that went to hell, they erased the record and I vanished, ran away back to New York and started living as best I could. But today, assuming it's still today, I know I can never be normal. I've been given power, ability to help people. Who am I to do nothing with it?" Orion sighed. This was a new start for her, these people would never know the truth of her life, it was too much to explain. And, to her surprise, the man accepted her story, even looking pleased.

"What do you plan to do now?" He asked calmly.

"Find a new guitar cause I'm willing to be mine's long gone." Orion sighed, glancing over at the man. "You have a different idea?"

"The people you met today, the Avengers, the idea for the team is one I think might appeal to you." He said. "The idea of heroes, people to fight the battle we never could." Orion moved from her relaxed position to sitting up straight, nearly at military attention. "There could be a place for you with them."

"You don't even know me." Orion said. "I could be a psycho. I could have some real serious problems." She laughed, crooked smile revealing white teeth as her chest shook with mirth, arms folded across it.

"Something tells me you're stable enough. Call it instinct, but something about you makes me like you. And I don't like a lot of people."

"People say that, I don't know what it is. I always thought I was really scary, but people are always telling me how nice I am. Guess their just surprised." Orion mumbled, running a hand through her hair before bringing both down on her thighs. "Well, what's the catch? Do you own me if I agree?"

"You'll be put on the Avengers roster, but you're free to go and live your life as you please. We could also make you a SHIELD agent, give you a place to stay." Orion shook her head.

"I can do the Avengers gig, but forgive me if I'm still very skeptical of government agencies. Never has ended well for me." Fury shrugged. "I understand you'll be keeping an eye on me?"

"Of course." Fury smirked and Orion peeled another smile.

"I'm in a hotel right now. See if you can find me. If you can, I owe you a high five." Fury shook his head, they'd find her easy enough. They had eyes everywhere.

"Maybe you should go meet your new team mates." Fury said, opening the door and showing her out. Orion had to temper her strides, massively long and quick, an almost wild style to them as she ate up the ground beneath her feet with each determined step, she could have easily overtaken even Fury's quick walk. Of course, she was 6'4" so she had long legs, and she towered over most people she met, and out ran almost everyone without even trying. Perhaps she should work on that.

Fury took her took a circular room, table in the center, but most of the people were just milling about. She recognized one of them, the Captain who she had met running into the city, who told her to turn back while she just blew past him. He spotted her first.

"You alright ma'am?" He asked. Orion raised a maroon eyebrow,marching up into a surprised line.

"Ma'am? I've never been a Ma'am before." She smiled, the narrowed her eyes. "Do I know you from some-oh, you were the guy at the cafe. With the waitress, and wireless radio." Orion's hands waved around and formed the shape if a box radio as she spoke, trying to explain how she'd seen him before. The Captain smiled.

"I think that was probably me. Are you all right?"

"Yeah, fine, never better. My heads spinning but that's nothing new. That guy packs quite the punch for a maypole." A snarky laugh carried across the room, and the towering blond gave Orion a stormy glare for her remark, but she brushed it off easily enough.

"You're sure you're all right?" Orion raised her eyebrows in indignation, how much did it take to get her point across. "You shouldn't have gone up there, you could have gotten hurt, or killed."

"Well that's my problem, thank you. I can take care of myself just dandy fine."

"Lay off cap, the woman is badass." The man who laughed before called from the back of the room. "She's built like Hammer Time over here and took a blow to head from Rock of Ages like it was nothing. Seriously, look at this." He pulled up his phone, showing video of Loki and Orion in the top of the tower. Orion snorted in laughter, shaking her head as the Captain glared at the phone wielding man.

"You're Tony Stark, right?" She asked.

"The one and only."

"Right. Good. Ok. Can I get names, or do I just stand here and guess?" Orion flashed the room a smile, trying to lighten the rather somber mood.

"Steve Rodgers." The Captain said holding out his hand to her.

"Pleased to meet you. And sorry about ignoring you, but I had places to be, things to do, so on. You are..." Orion turned to the largest occupant of the room, formerly refered to as Hammer Time by the loon across the room. Orion could guess why, the man had a rather large intimidating looking war hammer on his belt.

"Thor." Orion blinked a moment, bringing into perspective the other Thor she'd known, and this one.

"Hi." She said with a small wave. "You look, glum. Which weird, cause I think we won..." Thor narrowed his eyes, looking into her own bright blues. She was very tall, for a woman and for a mortal, and as the man of iron had said, very broad and strong looking, more so than even the captain. Much different standing up then when sprawled out on the floor from his brother's vicious blow to her head. Hold on, hadn't she had a wound from that? Where had it gone?

"They are choosing what to do with my brother, I cannot help some worry." Thor rumbled.

"Your brother is insane, and a murderer. I hope they kill him." One of the other people in the room snarled. Thor looked ready to pounce, but Orion stepped in the way.

"Hey now, let's not get feisty, ok?" Thor looked at Orion's dark hand on his shoulder like it was some kind of plague, but Orion didn't remove it, until he shoved off.

"Unhand me mortal." He growled, trying to push her away, and finding more resistance than expected from a mortal woman.

"Ok, so you've got your brother's god complex too. That's nice. I have a real pet peeve about people like that." She snapped, though she could see this whole thing going to hell fast, so she pulled back her anger and calmed herself. "Look, I know I came in unasked and did something incredibly stupid, I get that. But the fact is, you can't all be at each other's throats all the time, ok? You're good people, despite the fact that you have issues, you proved that today. But you have to be those people when the world isn't ending, not just when it is. So stop acting like five year olds."

"Nice speech." Tony said, about to clap.

"Despite said speech, if you patronize me, I will break your nose." Orion shot back, pointing at him and leveling him with a harsh glare to match. Tony put his hands up in mock surrender as Thor laughed behind Orion, who turned and gave the blond a winning smile before turning to finish up he introductions.

"So does the pirate want you to join up with us?" Tony asked in his trademark sarcastic tone.

"If you're referring to the man who lead me in here, yes, he does."

"Are you going to?" Steve asked. Orion shrugged, putting her hands behind her head and leaning back in the chair she now occupied.

"Got nothin' better to do." She replied. "Besides, I like helping people, and I have a strange attraction to dangerous situations."

"Just don't get yourself killed." Clint mumbled.

"Oh, that's hard to do. I'm made of some pretty tough stuff." Tony raised an eyebrow, and pretty much everyone was giving her curious looks. "What?"

"You're a human, correct." Thor began.

"Last time I checked, yeah." Orion's brow furrowed, confused as to where this was going, but Thor carried right on.

"Humans, mortals, you are so fragile, easily harmed compared to the Æsir." Orion's mouth formed into a slight oh, and she nodded.

"I've got these things, little machines the size of cells in my body. They make me stronger, tougher than, well, the entire human race. And they keep me from aging, which seriously sucks, but whatcha gonna do?" She shrugged. "In short, it's really, really hard to kill me, though not entirely impossible. And I heal real quick, but other than that, I'm pretty normal."

"That explains why you didn't get hurt why Loki hit you." Natasha mumbled.

"Yeah, I've got a pretty thick skull." She laughed. "But that was why I ran to help, cause I knew I could help, in some way. Managed to get myself in a sticky wicket though." Thor frowned at the odd words, but the room fell into tense, anticipating silence once more. Orion watched the people in the room, her "team" as they were now. She had a feeling they would all go their separate ways once this was over, Thor to Asgard, probably with Loki, Clint and Natasha back to spy life, Bruce back to goodness knows where, Steve back to trying integration. And Orion herself back to busking and her lovely hotel which she dearly hoped was still standing. These people were a volatile mix of personalities that naturally but heads and ripped each other apart, it would not end too well if they all had to live together.

Her mind was brought back to the room when the door clicked open. Fury walked in, looking as stern and impassive as before.

"The Council won't let you take Loki back to Asgard." He told Thor, making the thunderer leap from his seat, but Fury held up a hand. "I tried Thor, I did, but they refuse, they've already taken him." Thor was the picture of rage and anguish.

"Well that's it then." Clint said. "He's gone." Orion's skin crawled, there was something wrong here, it was not in Fury, but this Council, thing. Something was not right with them, something about then was just setting her off,even though she didn't know them. They sounded like the NID to her, and they were horrible people, who did horrible things. Thor would never see his brother again. "They said you'll have him back when they get what they want. They just have some things to ask the tell me. You'll see him soon." Thor relaxed a little, sitting back down. "You're all dismissed." The Avengers all shuffled out of the room together, but Orion rushed to get to Thor. She grabbed him quickly and pulled him aside.

"I know this sounds like I'm paranoid, but you can't trust these people, this Council. If you let them have him, you will never see your brother again. He will disappear, you won't be able to find him, and they will never let you have him. You have to push back, you have to fight them. If you let them go, you will never ever see him." Orion pushed her words, but Thor only shook his head.

"I must trust their judgement. Loki's crimes are grave, and he will deserve what he is given." Orion looked down, her hands slipping from Thor's shoulders as she shook her head. Thor turned and walked away, leaving the woman to struggle there, clueless for what she should do, confused and feeling trapped. All she could think of was what she had suffered at the hands of people like this, how she would wish it on no one. She couldn't turn a blind eye, but she couldn't do anything for it either. She felt like tearing out her hair, torn between knowing what would happen, to thinking what had been done, to her inability to do a blessed thing.

With a small grunt of frustration, Orion shook her head, detangling her fingers from her mussed up hair. This was not her problem, it was theirs. Just leave it. _Just leave it. _ As her turned from her alcove to got back to her life, and find her things wherever they might be, a little voice whispered in her mind.

_It is your problem._

_**Ever heard the idea that every injustice you see it your problem. Yeah, guess who ascribes to that idea. Frankly, it is Orion's problem, she just cant do anything about it. For now. Later days, other stories, this is how we set up sequels, in the beginning of story, not a cliffhanger at the end.**_

_**And in all technicalities, I could end the story here, and just fill in the blanks as life goes on in the sequel. But that's no fun, now is it?**_

_**If you're wondering why Fury accepts her, it's about Orion's character, the nature of why she ran into trouble rather than away from it. **_

_**Did you notice I covered an entire movie in two chapters? Talk about condensing.**_

_**~Ariyah's Rider**_


	4. Ch 4: Moving On Up

_**Chapter 3: Moving On Up**_

The sounds of the park were somewhat duller than usual, all the birds seeming to have abandoned it when everything went to disaster in the city that surrounded their home. There were fewer people walking, and those that were there seemed focused on the skies, as if another portal would open up and swallow what was left of their peace of mind. Everyone was a little skittish, a familiar tale to one busker in the park. Orion had lived through 9/11, watched as people both cowered and rallied around each other, but this time was different. People were thanking the Avengers by the thousands, people were coming to terms with the idea of aliens, people were questioning whether people like Thor should be allowed around. Orion didn't care for it all, she just wanted to play her guitar and eat, that was really it. Up until the moment when she was needed, she could sit here and thumb away on her guitar, which had some how survived the chaos of the days before. She was playing an upbeat song, a song of hope for tomorrow for the passerbys. She wanted to give them a bit of hope, even if not a single person had stopped to give her money yet today.

Three hundred dollar bills dropped into the empty case. Orion stopped heir playing, staring at them for a while, before looking to the shoes of the man they came from. They were very nice dress shoes, and she followed them up an expensive looking suit to a familiar face.

"Hello Tony." Orion smiled at the billionaire, who gave her a winning grin. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"I was going through the park, Pepper dragged me here. What are you doing?"

"Um...busking?" Orion said, motioning to her guitar case.

"Really, this is how you make your living?"

"Have you seen how I dress?" Orion asked, looking to her own clothes.

"Well, you're pretty good." Tony mumbled, sitting down next to her on the small wall she'd set up on. "Not a good day huh?"

"It is now." Orion replied, looking back to the three hundreds in her case. "Totally made my day. You look good."

"You too, for a homeless person."

"I have a hotel room." Orion shot back, making Tony raise his hands in mock surrender. "How's your tower?"

"In pieces. But, getting better. I'm building rooms for the rest of the team, if you ever need a place to crash." He said.

"That's nice of you." Orion nodded, thumbing the strings of her guitar again. As she leaned over, Tony spotted something pressing up against the front of her shirt, a necklace perhaps, but much too square...

"Are those dog tags?" He asked, pointing at the impression of them in her shirt. Orion glanced down, chin hitting her chest, and head then bobbing up as she replied.

"They are. I was in the Air Force. Some things, well you just can't leave them behind, so you carry them to your grave. For me, I will always be a soldier." Tony snorted at her answer.

"You're a good old fashioned American hero, you and Spangles." Orion raised an eyebrow at the nickname but let it slide.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." She mumbled. "Worlds in a sorry state when a sense of honor and duty is a bad thing." Orion knew she was half joking, like most things she said it wasn't totally sincere. She was very frank, but it came wrapped in a bit of humor. Tony, however, missed the jest entirely.

"See, it's things like that. You guilt trip people, all the time, just because we don't want to fight like you, just cause we're so upstanding and perfect like you." Orion blinked, not sure of how to reply without getting all deep and philosophical. _Oh to hell with it._

"Tony, soldiers are soldiers so that other people don't have to be. That's why I fight, so that other people don't have to. And if you think I'm perfect, you're sorely mistaken." Orion replied. "Look at those three hundred dollars you gave me. That's a great thing you did, regardless of who I am or what not, a good thing. You helped someone in need, that's all a soldier ever does, that's all anyone should do, they just do it in different ways. You do it through Iron Man, I do it through giving people some music to listen to, the Captain does it by fighting for people. Just because he carries a gun and is all humble doesn't make him better than you, it just makes him different. And I think you are a bit stuck up, sure, but frankly, you are kind if entitled to your ego." Just because she liked to joke around didn't mean she couldn't be very serious. Tony looked at Orion for a moment, then laughed.

"Did you practice that?" Orion flashed him a grin.

"Nah, thought it up on the fly. Pretty good, huh?" Tony have her a sideways nod and an affirmative frown, which she replied with a smile. "Well, thanks for the money, I was going to skip food today, but now I'm good."

"Seriously, skip food?" Tony asked. Orion shrugged, she'd gone days without food before, when she didn't get enough money she couldn't afford to eat too much. "No, not cool. No American hero is living like this on my watch."

"First your chastising me and now I'm an American hero. I'm confused." Orion said, but Tony blew past the sarcastic comment.

"Come on, you are moving into the tower today." Tony stood, grabbing Orion's guitar and putting it away.

"Wait, your tower isn't done yet..." Orion pointed out.

"No, you are coming to live in my tower, no ifs ands or buts." Tony said, picking up the guitar and case and beginning to walk off.

"But it's so far..." She mock whined, looking off to where the tower was with doe eyes as though it was a 100 mile trek.

"We'll take a cab." Tony said.

"You, Tony Stark, billionaire, genius, playboy, philothropist, walked here, or took a cab. Some how I find this hard to believe." Tony stopped short for a moment.

"Pep's holding me hostage." Orion raised her arms, looking around and then back to him.

"You're in a park, with no one watching you. This doesn't seem like much of hostage situation."

"She's holding my car hostage." He grumbled, making Orion snort in laughter.

"Ok, we'll grab a cab and go to my place, I'll grab my stuff and we'll go to your tower. If you're certain you want me around. I'm not exactly the most cultured of company."

"Less is more and all that." Tony said waving his hand dissmisively in the air as he walked down the pathway, Orion following closely behind.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Orion smiled. "Seriously though, don't mention it, I can't deal with the gratitude." Orion raised her eyebrows in an indignant and surprised expression, then shrugged.

"You might want to work on that."

"You live here?" Tony said, poking at one of the paint peeling walls. "It's like a prison." Orion chuckled a little and shook her head.

"It's noting like a prison. Have you ever been to prison?" She asked, giving the clerk a smile when he handed her the room key. "Prison's all concrete, doesn't look like it's gonna fall down on your head." Tony glanced at the man behind the counter, who still had the big goofy grin on his face, despite the insults being thrown around. Orion caught his gaze. "Don't worry, he doesn't have a clue about what we're saying. Not too good with English."

"In that case, this place should be condemned." Tony mumbled. "I feel like I'm going to get a disease just by breathing."

"I think there might be mold." Orion commented, turning around to walk backwards.

"You gonna run into something?"

"It's a hallway, what could I possible run into?" Tony shrugged, following her slowly down the tiny hall. She stopped and turned, opening one of the laminate wood doors and slipping inside.

"It smells like death in here." Tony said, pulling his shirt over his face.

"No, it smells like the toilet's backed up. It smells like crap. Death has a sticky sweet smell, this is just all kinds of nasty." Orion replied, waving a hand in front of her face. "Sewer's in my bathroom." She sang out as she gathered what little she owned and all but ran out of the room. "Run, before the smell kills us!" She cried, slamming the door shut and running down the hall, Tony close on her heels. She skidded by the desk, quasi-carefully putting the key down and darting out the door to the waiting cab. She shoved her things in the trunk and jumped in the backseat, and Tony slid in beside her, closing the door.

"What was that for?" Tony gasped, trying to catch his breath. Damn, the woman was quick on her feet. Orion let out a long sigh, giggling at the end.

"Life's a game, why not have a little fun?" She grinned at him. "Onwards, cabbie boy, I'm moving up in the world!" Tony was beginning to wonder if there was something in the air in that hotel, but he wasn't feeling loopy. Maybe it was just her personality. In which case, he could get used to it, it was like live comedy.

Orion kicked a bit of rubble across the shattered floor, looking at the pits formed in what she had seen as a very nice looking room. It made her heart twist strangely in her chest, that must have hurt like the dickens.

"You made that dent." Tony said, pointing to a small crater in the stone façade of his bar. "Sure you don't have a headache from that?"

"Like I said, I've got a pretty thick skull." Orion replied. "Though I do have a bit of sore spot where he pinged me."

"Random inappropriate question, where did you get all those scars on your face?" Tony asked. "And the one on the back of your neck. And your arms. And hands. Sure, soldier yeah, but really, what did you do, run through a giant blender? Corn field?" Orion snickered and shook her head.

"It's a little worse than that. The ones on my hands are from splitting my knuckles, punching things, breaking glass, knives, you name it. The one on my neck is from a parasite, and you really don't want to know. The ones on my face and arms…well…from when I was a kid." She sighed. The words were out of Tony's mouth before he could stop them.

"When you were a kid?! Who did that?" Orion looked a little surprised at the question. "You don't have to answer that…"

"No, it's fine, I don't mind, I guess. It was 20 years ago now, I think I should be able to talk about it. I'm an orphan, in case you hadn't figured that one out. My mother's brother, my uncle, 'took care' of me. Uncle Perez. He never took my mom's death well, he turned into an alcoholic and drug addict, and he started to abuse me once I could walk and talk. I got worse and worse, I couldn't go to school, and I nearly died a couple of times when he attacked me with a baseball bat, once he came at me with a steak knife. I knew I couldn't stay, so even though I was a scared little girl, I stole his money and ran as far away as I felt I could go." Orion paused, mind drifting away for a moment. "Used to think he ruined my life. But in reality, he made it. I'd probably be in some gang or some such nonsense if not for him. It sounds weird, but his abuse saved my life."

"That's…rough." Tony mumbled. His mind was screaming _Abort! Abort! Abandon conversations!_ He was not good with feelings, and parents, and pasts and crap. He didn't want to talk about this.

"Eh, could be worse." She smiled. "I could be dead." She added with a small snort of laughter. "So, great and mighty Tony Stark, what can you tell this young wanderer trying to find her way? What have you been up to lately?"

"Oh you know, the usual. Saving the world from evil aliens, building a tower, generally being the most awesome person in the world." Tony said, rubbing his fingers on his jacket. Orion laughed, something she seemed to do an awful lot of, as though it was her default reaction. She pushed herself up on top of the bar, swinging her legs back and forth like an enormous child.

"Who is Iron Man?" She asked. It took Tony a moment to realize it was a serious question.

"I am." He said quickly.

"And who are you?" Tony frowned. Orion smirked, and explained herself. "Are you Iron Man, or are you Tony Stark. In other words, is Tony Stark Iron Man, or is Iron Man Tony Stark? Who makes up Who?"

"Look, I just met you…"

"I'm not asking for an answer. Just a bit of thought perhaps. You can kick me out if you like, but here's the thing about me. I help people, it's what I do. And that doesn't just mean I run around in a fancy costume and fight bad guys. It means I make sure they don't have to face their demons alone, whatever those demons may be. I'm not expecting you to make me a confidant or anything, that would be a little weird, frankly. But that's just kind of, what I do. I thought I might as well put it out in the open so I don't get settled in and then start annoying you. You want me to shut up, I'll shut right up and just be the goofy person you saw running out of a hotel today because it was fun. It can do that." Tony took a moment to get used to the sudden, and drastic change in demeanor about the woman. The nonchalance was gone and replaced with words that carried weight and meaning to them, every word dripping with total honesty and no sarcasm or humor in it. It was almost like talking to a different person.

"Please do." Tony said curtly. Orion nodded and slid off the counter top.

"Right then, can do. So, where do I sleep?" She smiled, demeanor dropping back into what it had been before, all the solemn seriousness gone. Tony shook his head, then motioned for her to follow him, showing her the room she could hole up in, telling her about JARVIS and then rushing to get to his lab. There he stayed, working on his suits to get his mind off what she said. It was a question that nagged him, especially after what Spangles had gotten up in his face about.

Did the man make the suit, or did the suit make the man?

Tony Stark couldn't sleep, not lately. He wasn't well, not right in the head. But even if he knew that, he was not going to believe it. He was Tony Stark, he was Iron Man, he was invincible, and no near death experience was going to take him down. Didn't those kinds of things help people, new lease on life and all that crap?

Tony Stark was trying to drown his sorrows. Pepper would probably kill him, but she wasn't around to chastise. No one was, Bruce kept a pretty strict sleep schedule, and if Tony drank while he slept, the good doctor would never know. And what he didn't know he couldn't scold Tony for. Except maybe for the inevitable hangover. He could scold for that…

A loud yawn drew him out of his reverie, and he looked up to see Orion coming down the hall, gray tank top mussed up and off kilter on her well built and muscled torso, bearing the winged logo of the air force across her chest as she shuffled into the room, black sweats tucking around her ankles, a little too short for her long legs, deep red hair appering black in the dull light, tied in a horribly messy bun on her head and much of it falling in wavy curls in her face. Tony stared for a moment, taking in the view, until he remembered that this woman could probably kill him in two seconds and he looked away, down to his drink. He wished she would leave, she would probably lecture too. As he stared at the whiskey bottle sitting there, he grew alarmed, remembering that she had told him her abusive uncle was a drinker, and he rushed to hide it away.

"Whatcha doing that for?" She asked, voice not half so tired as he expected as she brushed some hair from her face. "You that stingy with your whiskey?" Tony blinked for a moment, looking to the bottle and shot glass in his hands.

"Wha…I thought you wouldn't like it…your uncle…" he said, voice a little more slurred than he would have liked. Orion smiled wryly at him.

"What are you on about, I'm Irish! Well, half Irish but still, I like a late night drink as much as the next guy. Or you, I guess." Tony shrugged and handed her the bottle.

"Glasses are up there." He pointed with his glass up to the cabinets. "So, your uncle's drinking didn't turn you off?" He asked.

"Did at first, kept me away from drugs and stuff when I was a kid, and away from gangs, thank God. But, I've got this blessed curse." She sighed, pouring herself a glass, and knocking it back as though it was only water. "I can't get drunk. Not even buzzed."

"Really?" Tony asked, leaning on the bar as Orion got another glass across the marble counter top.

"Really. I've never been drunk in my life. I guess that's a good thing, can't drown anything in alcohol." She swished the amber liquid around in her glass, almost transfixed by it. "It comes with the nanites."

"Nanites?" Tony sat up straighter, curious about what she could mean. Orion nodded slowly.

"Did Fury tell you? No? Well, here's the scoop on my 'powers'." She said, voice droning sarcastically on the word powers, hands forming halfhearted air quotes. "I am the result of some less than sanctioned experiments with nanite technology to create a breed of super soldier, stronger than the Captain was. The nanites, tiny cell sized robots running around in my blood, make me exponentially stronger than I should be, make my body tougher, more resistant to blunt force trauma and disease, and they are like repair bots, so I heal fast. And," she lifted her glass once more, "I can't get drunk." With that, she drank what was left of her second shot and leaned one the table, hands spinning the glass slowly as her elbows held her body up.

"Cap's file says he can't get drunk because of his fast metabolism." Tony mumbled. Orion raised her eyebrows, thinking over his words.

"Something he and I may have in common. I sure do eat a helluva lot of food" She chuckled at her own joke as she stared out at the city. "God I love this place."

"You've been here a day…" Tony droned, but Orion laughed lightly again.

"Not the tower, though it's great too. I love this city." She sighed. "I've been all over, but this place will always be home." Tony nodded, running a finger around the edge of his glass. "You never answered my question." Her glowing blue eyes shifted back to him. In the dim light, they are almost like the blue glow of the cube.

"What question?" Tony asked innocently.

"Whatcha doin'? Other than drinking the night away I mean."

"I thought you weren't going to do that demons thing." Tony grumbled, wanting to stop the conversation before it began. Before, Orion had been doing most of the talking, and was pretty lighthearted about it too, despite the sometimes heavy topic she landed on. It was a bit odd, but he'd liked it. He really didn't want to talk about the drinking. He was Tony Stark, of course he drank. It was part of his persona.

"We did talk about that, you told me to shut up, and I'm working on it. And don't worry, I have no plans and no rights to lecture you on the drinking. I've got my issues and you've got yours, your entitled to yours as much as I am to mine."

"If you have so many issues, why do you want to help other people? And besides, what issues, you look pretty put together from here." Tony said, though the words came out harsher than he intended. What he didn't expect was for Orion to burst out laughing.

"Me? Put together? Clearly you don't know me! And, on helping people, my life has been crap, and I barely made it out alive. I would have given anything to have someone standing with me, even if that was all they did. So, I try to do that for people, cause I know what it's like to be utterly alone and think that there's no hope, it really sucks." She sighed, leaning back. "And, Mr. Stark, if you want to avoid this conversation, stop pushing me towards it." She grinned broadly at him, slipping her arms off the counter, dropping her glass in the sink and wandering back down the hall.

"Why were you out here?" Tony called after her.

"PTSD, nightmare. Torture will do that to ya." She yelled back, turning and walking backwards as she waved. "Sleep good."

Tony looked down, and slid his glass across the counter, standing slowly. PTSD, torture, experiments and machines inside them. He and Orion were more alike than he liked to admit, he supposed. Or maybe that was the alcohol talking. Yeah, definitely the whiskey. He wasn't sure if he wanted to sleep, but he felt tired now. The billionaire ran a hand through his hair and let out his own yawn.

Yeah, he was going to sleep now.

_**So, slightly awkward chapter, I guess. There will be plot at some point, I swear to God. There wasn't much in this chapter, and I think this story is going to be pretty short after all, so you know, short story, not much plot. Kill me.**_

_**Favorite, follow or review. Do any of these and I'll up date with longer, better chapters. Deal?**_

_**~Ariyah's Rider**_


	5. Ch5: Gimme Three Steps

_**Gimme Three Steps**_

_**So…I'm a bit late. Excuse my absence (if you care) but my life imploded last few weeks, and I was a bit over worked. And then I remembered this existed. Ha ha, ha… Anyway, I hope this is to your liking because I worked hard on it. Well, as hard as I could, life's still busy.**_

_**Disclaimer: I forgot this before. But yeah I own nothing. Except Orion. She's mine.**_

* * *

_Time Jump: 7 months give or take a few days_

"Still slowly losing your mind out in Malibu, Tony?" Orion asked, glancing up at the floating projection.

"More or less." The billionaire replied. "I still really want to know how you know all of this stuff. It's kinda...freakish. You never went to school and your schooling me. Me, Tony Stark!"

"I told you, it was downloaded into my head, I never learned any of this. It's just running around up there and I can spit it back out. It's like my head is a high tech biological version of Google." Orion replied.

"That is creepy."

"Indeed it is." Orion sighed. "So, is it working? Can you call that lovely suit of yours yet?"

"I am just about to test my work, yeah. Mark 42 is either about to be really awesome, or it's gonna kill me."

"7 months and 36 suits. You have got problems." Orion said, rummaging through some of the things on the desk in front of her, looking for something beneath the piles of things she fiddled with during the day.

"So you keep reminding me." Tony droned. "Ok, here we go." Tony moved back from right in front of his camera to the center of the room. He stood there for a moment, speaking out the experiment date and time and few more throwaway lines before stretching his hand to the desk where his suit sat in pieces.

"Just think, it should work." Orion told him, leaning back in her chair and spinning around lazily.

"Your not even paying attention."

"Nope." She replied, emphasizing the p. "Recall, my friend, that you are Tony Stark. You do not need my help." Tony shrugged, and continued to focus on his suit bits, trying to call then to his body. He started to jump, and flail, almost straining to get them. Orion paused in her slow turn, watching him with a humored curiosity. "You look like you're having a seizure. Or you're just a really terrible dancer."

"No more comments. I need total silence." Tony said, returning his focus to the task at hand. There was a slight rattling sound, and then one of the gloves flew over and attached itself to his arm. "Yeaha! I did it!"

"Hooray!" Orion said, raising both her arms over her head and celebration, but then let then back down. "Now get the rest of it." She droned sarcastically.

Tony was already in process of doing so, and slowly but surely the bits attached themselves to him, each a bit quicker than the last until they were latching on to him at somewhat alarming speeds. Orion was cracking up on the other end, falling out of her chair. He managed to grab the faceplate before it hurt him, and put it on gently.

"Ha...ha...tada!" Orion raised her hands over her head once more, then collapsed onto the desk in front of her.

"I think that went well." Tony said through the suit, call screen flashing to the inside of his helmet. "HUDs working really well. That bio signs detector is up and running. That thing is epic."

"And useful. It can tell the difference between types of life, block out plants and animals and stuff. It can tell you were people and things are, and so on." Orion added, having finally caught her breath.

"Yeah you told me." Tony replied.

"I know that, eidetic memory and all that jazz."

"Who says 'all that jazz' anymore?"

"I do." Orion returned quickly. "And besides, I say plenty of things that are far more ridiculous than that." Tony made a face of begrudging agreement. "Hey, just for future reference, I think you should turn off the calling feature when you sleep, cause with the nightmares, you may just kill yourself in your sleep."

"What nightmares?" Tony asked innocently, but Orion just gave him a look, as if to say _really_. "Did Rhodey call you about that episode. It told him I was fine."

"Rhodey has no idea who I am, much less how to call me. And, episode, what episode? Your having 'episodes' now?" Orion asked.

"No. And I introduced you and Rhodey."

"You mentioned him. And you were drunk, and showed me a picture of your lieutenant friend on your phone, and then proceeded to carry on a conversation with him. And me. And you were talking as him too. It was all very sarcastic and patronizing."

"I don't remember that."

"You were drunk off your backside, of course you don't remember that, you don't remember the day after either. I had to cover for you." Orion snapped back, though here was humor in her voice.

"I still don't believe you." Tony said.

"I have video of the whole thing, if you want."

"On second thought, I believe you." Tony corrected. "What would I do without you?"

"Get far more lectures than you do already. And fall down the stairs and break your face. So, episode?" Orion said, dragging the conversation back to Tony's slip up.

"Oh, you're breaking up." Orion rolled her eyes.

"Tony, we are on Starktech, things don't break up."

"Of course not." Tony said, looking all proud, until he realized what she was saying. "Seriously though, is Point Break back in town, the screen is fritzing." Orion rolled her eyes. Stark and his ludicrous nicknames, she just thanked her lucky stars that he hadn't given her one yet.

"_Thor_ hasn't been around lately, no. If you don't want to talk, fine. I'll just tell Pepper." She threatened.

"You are a cruel woman."

"Incredibly. Now, you have diagnostics to run, and I have things to do." Orion said, looking at her phone, which was her only watch. She hated having things on her wrists, the old burn and torture scars got irritated quickly.

"You have things to do?" Orion's hand hovered over the cut off button, wondering if she should retort or just shut him off. Well, she never could keep her mouth shut.

"Yes, contrary to your belief, Tony, I have a life. Goodbye." Orion clicked the link off, and then leaned back, kind of wishing there was a more satisfying way to do that. It just wasn't like slamming a phone down, not that she really knew but there was no sense of the irritation being expressed when one clicks a button. She tucked her watch back into her pocket, fixed the chaos of her desk into slightly organized chaos and left the room.

In the months since the attack on New York the tower had been repaired, and Tony had stayed true to his plans, there was a whole wing of the tower dedicated to rooms for them, each designed for their tastes. Steve's was set up like the 40s, Orion's was minimalist, Bruce's had really, really thick walls, Thor's was modeled after how he had described Asgard, and so on. The rest of the tower was set up like a giant rec room of sorts, with each level of the top part of the tower dedicated to things for them. There were a number of labs for all kinds of science, there was a gym, 2 actually, an archery range, a shooting range, a "Hulk-out" room. Then there was the main rec room, where Loki had made his impression on the floor. It was all repaired now, the bar turned from that into a fully functioning kitchen, there was a table big enough for all of them, though Orion usually ate at the bar. There was a pool table, foosball, and ping pong in one half of the room, and an bunch of chairs and couches set up on the other side, stairs leading upstairs from there into a theater above the main rec room, so that people could watch a movie without annoying the others. The TV of course could move into the main rec room, making the sitting area a second theater when need be. It was all very high tech and fancy.

And all very empty.

The only person who lived in the "Avenger's Tower" year round was Orion herself, who spent most of her days in one of the labs on the video feed with Tony as he worked on another one of his many suits. Orion could just regurgitate information at him, and he could make sense of the things that passed beyond her head. There was a major difference between having the knowledge, and effectively applying it, as Orion had discovered long ago. But it mattered little to her, at least she had something to do with her day, and she didn't care in the least that Tony hardly ever thanked her for her help, or made a comment on how smart she was or anything. She didn't need the ego boost, she survived fine without it for ages before, she'd live on now.

But it got lonely. Her best times were when Bruce would make a visit from whatever remote corner of the world he'd gone to this time. He'd come back with some fantastic tales, and he didn't mind Orion's sometimes endless chatter, and he talked back to her. And, unlike Tony who shut her out every chance he got, Bruce was willing to let Orion be a friend to him, something she was more than grateful for, letting her feel like she was doing something useful for someone. But Bruce wasn't in the tower, no one was, she was utterly alone. Orion was not the most social person, but she needed people. Silence got to her.

As such, she had things to do today, but unfortunately no one to see. Such was her lonely life, ah, c'est la vie. Orion's itinerary was still pretty empty, but not as empty as usual, she was going shopping, something she disliked to a rather large degree, but she had money and a lack of clothes. Might as well fix the issue. Or at least that was her plan for the day, about a half an hour of it. And she really didn't want to do it anyway.

"So bored." Orion grumbled to herself as she threw her body down onto one of the couches. She had so long lived her life in a constant state of panic and action, this idea of not having something trying to kill her, of having nothing to do, it was taking some adjusting. More than seven months worth, apparently. She sighed. She would do the shopping soon, just sit around a bit first. Maybe watch the news a little, catch up. Tony always loved to say she didn't know a blessed thing about the world, which was kinda true. Well…maybe not actually watch the news, just, stare at the screen and let her mind file it all away while she zoned out and let her mind wander off to nowhere land.

The screen glitched, pulling Orion from her inner wanderings and back into reality. "Tony, you should really stop bragging about your tech if it's going to break twice in one day." She growled, poking at the clicker in a feeble attempt at fixing the problem. Images flashed scratchily across the screen, and then the words came through.

"Some people call me a terrorist, I consider myself a teacher. America, ready for another lesson. In 1864 in Sand Creek Colorado the U.S. military waited till the friendly Cheyenne braves all gone hunting, waited to attack and slaughter their families left behind, and claim their land. Thirty-nine hours ago the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait was attacked. I...I...I did that. A quaint military church filled with wives and children, of course. The soldiers were out on maneuver, the braves were away. President Ellis you continue to resist my attempts to educate you, sir. And now, you've missed me again. You know who I am, you don't know where I am, and you'll never see me coming."

Ok. Shopping trip canceled.

* * *

"How did you find me?"

"Tony, you have a crowd of fangirls following you _everywhere_. They're a very obvious bunch of screaming teens." Orion said, leaning on the bar where Tony sat, empty shot glass in his hands. "And I asked JARVIS."

"Tony, who is this?" It was Orion's first time meeting Rhodey, or James Rhodes as his real name was. If his reaction to her was anything to go by, introduction by drunken raving had not gone to both parties.

"It's Orion." Tony slurred, apparently having had too much to drink, his voice and Rhodey's confiscation of the alcohol was anything to go by. "I introduced you."

"Drunk off your backside, remember? Hi, I'm Orion Cooper." She said, extending a hand to him. "Friend of his."

"Colonel James Rhodes." He replied, shaking her hand.

"You can be pilot buddies!" Tony exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. Rhodey gave him a look, before passing the skeptical gaze onto Orion.

"I'm former air force." Orion explained, then threw her thumb at Tony. "Care to explain, or are you as clueless about the cause of the drunken babbling as I am?"

"I've stopped trying." Rhodey sighed.

"So, Rhodey, this Mandarin guy, can we talk about him, or what?" Tony asked, sliding his glass away and leaning over the bar.

"That's classified information, Tony." Rhodey shot back.

"And yet here you are, in a secure location. Come on, do tell." Orion smiled, and Rhodey raised an eyebrow at her.

"Alright look, there have been nine explosions."

"Nine?" Tony and Orion said in unison, then exchanging slight glares.

"Yes, nine. The public only knows about three. The trouble is, no one can ID the device, there are no bomb casings." Rhodey explained.

"You know I can help, just ask. I got a ton of new tech, I got a prehensile, I got a...I got a new bomb disposal. Catches explosions mid-air." Tony said, tired mind trying figure out what he wanted to say and what he wanted to hide.

"When is the last time you slept?"

"Around 76 hours ago." Orion mumbled.

"Hey! You're supposed to cover for me!" Tony exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Orion, eyes flashing.

"Tony, this is getting really bad. You cannot go on like this, you will run yourself into the ground, at a specific depth of about six feet under!" She snapped back. "And, apparently, your having panic attacks! Yes, I asked JARVIS. Panic attacks Tony! Come on, you cant keep living like this, it's going to kill you, and it's not taking it's time."

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not." Orion snapped back.

"We've had this conversation once before." Tony snarled, and Orion drew back from him. Yes, they had this conversation at least once. Probably more than that. Orion was a woman of her word, but she couldn't just stand by and watch as Tony went down in the flames he was creating. She helped people, she just couldn't help him, and that…that was not acceptable. Not in her mind. It was killing her, like it always did when she couldn't help people. Doc always did tell her she got too attached, that she was being idealistic, but she couldn't help it, she wanted to help people, everyone.

She hated to see people burn, it was like she was burning with them.

"You, you pretend to care about people one second and the next your judge jury and executioner! You run around with a gun killing people!" Tony snapped, getting in Orion's face. He blue eyes blazed with a fury Tony had never seen before, though if he'd known, it was the exact glare she fixed Loki with. It was a death glare that really felt like it could kill him, like blue lasers were going to shoot out those haunting eyes and melt his head. The metal of the chair she was leaning on crumbled under her grip, reminding Tony of her incredible strength. Her jaw was set tight and her whole body tensed in anger. The room froze, the world holding it's breath as Orion's temper threatened to boil over.

Tony Stark had hit a nerve.

"I. Do. Not. Like. Killing. People." Her voice was low, dangerous, deadly serious. "It is the worst part of what I do and if you think that the fact that I have _ended lives_, no matter how vile or depraved they might have been, doesn't haunt me _every single night_ and _every second_ I'm awake, you are mistaken. If you think that about me, you don't know me." Tony tried to stand his ground, but it was impossible. Her look made Fury's death glares seem passive, her anger made Thor's temper look like a child's fit. Rhodey watched carefully, not sure if Orion's wrath would turn violent, or if she would remain in control. He didn't think he could much to stand her way, but he had to try.

Tony was shaking a little, and his eyes were wide as saucers. He wasn't sure what exactly about her instilled such fear; he'd faced down Thor for Pete's sake! But there was something about her, maybe it was the unnatural color of her eyes, or her towering stature, or something in her voice, but she was horrifying. _Note to self: never make this woman mad, it might be worse than Bruce._ Tony thought.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity but was really only a few seconds, Orion shut her eyes, turning her head away. She released the chair from her iron grip and shook her head. "I have to go." She whispered. "_Don't_, come looking."

Tony took a breath, fairly certain he'd just had the drunk scared right out of him. He blinked rapidly, reminding himself that he was _Tony Stark_, he'd dealt psycho angry women before. Of course those were mostly his one-night stands, but still, angry psychos nonetheless.

"Ok, who is that?" Rhodey asked again, wanting more of an answer than former pilot and a name. There was more going on there.

"Orion. She's a…well she's part of the super secret boy band." Tony mumbled. "Though, the only time I've seen her anywhere near that pissed off was when Loki told her he was her god. That got her ticked. She lives in the tower, who knows why she came out here, I don't. Anyway, as you can see, she's strong." Tony said, pointing at the crushed chair.

"I got that feeling, yeah."

"Some kind of unsanctioned, inhumane experiments were done on her. Some people trying to make another Captain America, or something like that. Anyway, she's got this freakishly good memory, is crazy good at math, and has a million and one things downloaded into her brain."

"Downloaded?" Rhodey asked. How could something be downloaded into someone's mind, how did that even work.

"Like a computer, yeah. Like Neo in the Matrix." Tony said.

"Has she got the…" Rhodey motioned to the back of his head, not really wanting to say. Tony shook his head.

"Nah, but she has a real nasty scar on the back of her neck. Told me it was from a parasite, or something like that." Tony mumbled.

"Where'd you find her?"

"On the street. Well, actually she ran up into my tower during New York and faced off with Loki. Then I found her on the street. Playing a guitar. Good too." Tony replied. "She plays at the tower sometimes."

"She's worried about you."

"This again?"

"Tony, people are worried about you. Not sleeping, having an panic attack because your signed some kids picture, this is not good." Rhodey tried.

"I will have you kicked out."

"Tony…"

"Forcibly removed."

"Tony come on, people are worried. _I'm _worried."

"Don't be, I'm Tony Stark." He said, flashing a winning smile. Rhodey narrowed his eyes angrily, but made no answer. Instead, he turned on his heel and followed Orion's path out the door.

* * *

"Orion, Happy says you punched him."

"He was annoying me." Orion picked at the French fries in front of her, other hand holding her phone to her ear. It was the one Stark had made for her, claiming it was better than her old one. She'd got that one from the SGC and then modified by the Doc, so she doubted it, but she took it anyway. It was cooler, at any rate. Pepper was calling her, haggling over an incident from that morning when she had left for Malibu where Tony had holed himself up after seeing the Mandarin broadcast.

"And so you broke his nose?"

"I did not break his nose." Orion scoffed, picking up one of her now cold and soggy French fries. Why was she still eating these?

"Yes, you did." Orion's face fell a bit, French fry freezing in front of her mouth.

"Oops." She replied, before chomping down on the food.

"Oops? Orion, you broke the chief of security's nose in the main lobby of the tower. This is not an 'oops' moment."

"They were cheering." She mumbled. Pepper mumbled something on the other side of the line, sounding suspiciously like 'why am I not surprised' before going back to chastising Orion.

"Orion you can't punch the chief of security."

"Why not?"

"Because he's head of security, that's why!"

"Meh. He was ticking me off. The man has an obsession with badges. Seriously, I think you need to get him checked out, it's kinda scary." Orion mused as she nibbled on another cold French fry.

"You can't just punch people because they make you upset." Pepper sounded very exasperated, like a parent dealing with an impudent child. Well, she got enough from Tony, Orion supposed. Still, Happy had it coming.

"I know that. I was raised on the streets, not by wolves." Orion joked back. "Anyway, it won't happen again. But seriously, I should not have to where a badge, I freaking live in the tower."

"I'll tell Happy that, but I make no guarantees. I have to talk to him anyway." Pepper didn't seem to be looking forward to that conversation. "I have to go, I have a meeting."

"You sound so excited." Orion drolled.

"It's someone I used to work with…he used to ask me out all the time. It's just awkward." Pepper replied.

"I wish I could understand, but I can't. Want me to come over and whoop his backside if he does it again?" Pepper laughed over the phone, and Orion smiled. At least one mission accomplished today.

"No, you stay and take care of Tony for me. I think I can handle Killian."

"Aye aye captain." Orion replied.

"Goodbye, Orion."

"Bye." Orion clicked her phone off and poked at her food a little more. One of the nice things about being the least known avenger was that she could still go into public places and avoid fans. Life was pretty good.

Of course 6'4" woman with bright blue eyes and red-black hair with scars littering her body still attracted attention, but it was the sort of a attention that came from across the room in looks of 'I wonder if she'd kill me if I talked to her' and the such. So she still got left alone. Not that she liked the glares and ushering away of children. That was kinda annoying. She glanced at the time on her phone, it had been sometime since she stormed out of Tony's home in a bit of a rage. She'd cooled down, hopefully he had too.

* * *

"You!" Orion scowled. Was he still ticked off at her? Where had the comment about being a gun-slinging vigilante come from anyway, she had not gone on any missions for anyone lately, and she hadn't shot anyone certainly. Maybe it was the amount of time she spent in the shooting range… "You broke Happy's nose!" Orion scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"You too?" Tony frowned and cocked his head. "Pepper was giving me a talking to over the phone. And, how do you know I broke Happy's nose?"

"I was talking to him. He's spying on Pepper and some dude named Killian."

"Oh, her meeting yeah. She said she used to work with him, good old fashioned creep by the way she talked about him." Orion replied, poking at one of the many things in Tony's lab.

"Strapping creep according to Happy. He thinks I'm going to loose Pepper to him." Tony mused aloud, drawing Orion's attention again.

"He's right you know."

"Did I ask your opinion?" Tony snapped back.

"Still ticked at me then." Orion said, putting her hands up and backing off. "Look, I'm sorry, my mouth gets in front of my head way too much, frankly everything gets in front of my head too much, but that's a different conversation. I shouldn't have said what I said, I'm sorry." Tony narrowed his eyes, studying her carefully. Orion was an honest person, and he had not once known her to falsely apologize for something, or fail to own up to her mistakes, even if she meant well by her actions. He was still upset with her, but annoyingly she was right. Not that he would ever let her know that.

"Just don't do it again." He grumbled back at her.

"I'll try not to." Orion smiled sheepishly, knowing it was getting harder for her to keep the promise of keeping her hands off of Tony's issues. He didn't mind when she joked about them, but the second things got serious he'd turn nasty or run.

Typical.

"Pepper's flying in from NYC tonight, you know. She's going to be all kinds of unhappy if you're not having dinner with her." Orion said, trying to take the conversation to different grounds.

"You cooking?" Tony asked, not looking up from what he was tinkering with. Was that a new suit? It had better not be a new suit.

"I can if I means you'll get to dinner." Orion answered. "Your like some kind of high tech hermit down here." She looked around the room. "Is the giant rabbit out front her gift? Cause I think a box of chocolates might be a better idea."

"What's wrong with the rabbit?"

"Ever heard of subtlety?" Tony didn't answer. "Of course not, you're Tony Stark. It's just kinda, I don't know, overkill of the worst kind." Orion trailed off, not really sure what to say.

"There's a bad kind of overkill?"

"Yes. A giant stuffed rabbit." She cut back. "Please tell me you're getting her something else to go with the enormous fuzz bucket out there." When Tony didn't answer Orion sighed and went to go upstairs. "I'm cooking dinner, if you're not there, it's not Pepper you'll have to worry about. _I'll_ have your head first." Tony grimaced slightly at the thought, but much of the other bits of what she said were lost on him, alone in his little world.

Pepper arrived later than expected, and Tony was in his lab when she did show up. Orion had left dinner ready for them, having eaten her share and gone off to do goodness knew what. Tony had no idea how that woman occupied her spare time, but she always seemed to be doing some mundane task with it. He'd left the mark 42 in the living room, remotely on so that he could stay in the lab and not worry about her.

Ok that sounded worse than it was. He had to tinker down here, it was how he kept sane. He had to be doing something, or else his mind would wander and it would all hit him and he _could not cope_ with the madness. So he tinkered. Always doing something.

She had been tired, and a bit tense, but plane rides did that. But Tony was feeling a bit lazy, and ignored Orion's warnings about dinner, having eaten already, and stayed in the lab, remotely controlling the suit.

Tired as Pepper was, she still found out.

"Busted." Tony said, looking over at her. The disappointed look on her face was crushing, as though she couldn't believe she kept giving him chances. Frankly, neither could he, but hey, he wasn't arguing.

"This is a new level of lame." She said, looking at him sternly.

"Sorry."

"You ate without me, on date night?" And he was dead. Orion would find out by morning and she would kill him. Slowly, if the threat was anything to go by.

"I was just… you I did eat, I didn't know if you were coming back or having drinks with Aldrich Killian." Pepper's eyes grew wide, and then narrowed to slits. She turned to the stairs and screamed.

"Orion Cooper! Get down here!"

"Coming mother!" Was the telltale singsong reply, and Orion's heavy steps came down the stairs, stopping short when she saw the scene before her. "Do you want to kill him, or shall I?"

"You told him about Killian?!" Pepper snapped. Orion put her hands up in surrender and put on her best innocent face.

"Who there, he mentioned Killian first. Right after chastising me for Happy's unscheduled nose job. You're being spied on, Pep."

"Tony!" Pepper turned her ire back on the inventor.

"Hey, I thought you were on my side!" Tony protested, and the Mark 42 sent Orion a glare, which she had an almost humorous reaction to, looking at the suit as though she had not idea what to do with it.

"Tony this is serious! You're spying on me with Happy?"

"It's not really spying…" Tony tried, but Pepper was fed up. With a huff she walked upstairs and left Orion standing on the stairs, looking rather dumbfounded. She stared at the wall for a moment, before gaining her senses and clambering up the steps. She wasn't exactly the most graceful person in the world.

"Pepper?" Orion peeked over the metal railing, not that it was anything to hide behind, made out of metal poles. Her blue eyes scanned the room, spotting the red head walking out of the living room and down one of the many dimly lit halls. The railing rang softly as Orion's hands trailed over it, striding quickly to catch up to the angry CEO. "Pepper?" The woman stopped in her tracks, turning around and leveling Orion with a harsh glare. "You mad?"

"Mad? I'm furious! My boyfriend has a love affair with machines and can't even wait to have dinner with me after a _very _long day, and you…you did not do as I asked." She glowered at the pilot, and turned to walk away, but a strong hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Pepper, I know you're ticked off, and have every right to be, but I'm not Tony's mother, I can't make him do anything. And… he's had a rough bit lately, try and cut him a little slack, ok?"

"Cut him some slack? I've cut him plenty of slack already!" Orion gave Pepper her best kicked puppy look, a strange expression on the marred face of the usually brash and rough housing warrior. "Orion, if he's trouble, he should talk to me."

"Should and will, not exactly the same word. In case you forgot, your boyfriend is Tony Stark, genius inventor with an ego the size of a galaxy. Man'll die before he admits he has problems."

"Doesn't he trust me?" Orion pursed her lips, averting her gaze. "Of course he doesn't." Pepper scoffed, turning again. Orion jumped in front of her, blocking her progress down the hall.

"Wait!" Pepper scowled and ducked past her.

"Stop meddling in other people's lives, Orion. Your like one of those sad real housewives women." Orion scowled.

"Now that's just insulting." She used her quick stride to reach Pepper once more, trying to slow her down. "I know it's not my business, but I really think… he loves you Pepper, and whether he'll tell you or not, you're the only thing holding him together right now, you're keeping him sane. You're the one good thing that makes everything else worth it." Orion fixed the slighter woman with a beseeching gaze, shoulders falling down as her voice became sincere and quiet. Pepper sighed.

"I just wish he'd tell me that himself."

"One thing at a time I guess." Orion shrugged. "I'll drag him to breakfast tomorrow." She finished, giving the CEO a sideways grin and letting her pass.

"You had better."

"Yes Ma'am!" Orion saluted and walked back down the hall, to go back to her own room. It was late, she wanted sleep. If she forgot to sleep, bad things happened. Memory lapses and sometimes less than legal things. As she passed through the living room, she leaned over the railing, yelling down into Tony's lab.

"You owe me, again!"

"Noted!"

"Be at breakfast and I'll call it even!"

"Gotcha!"

"Go to sleep!"

"Can't!"

"I will drug you." Orion smiled as Tony ran up the stairs and off to his bedroom. "See you in the morning." She said quietly, not intending for him to hear. She tapped her fingers on the railing in a familiar four beat rhythm, making a light metallic ring fill the air. She let out a deep breath as she gazed about the now empty room, before slinking off to her own room, and falling into the bed face first, buried in the plush pillows. She didn't bother to change or get under the covers, just hanging half on, half off of the bed and waiting for sleep to take her.

Within minutes, she was in dreamland.

* * *

_**Hope that was worth the wait. Did you notice that we're into Iron Man 3. In case you're wondering, I know I switched the order and location of things, it's called poetic license. It worked better this way, and this is not a play by play anyway, so it's not that big of a deal. Sorry if my Rhodey was off, I have trouble with him.**_

_**And I promise to stop going over Orion's origins and powers soon. I should really stop that…**_

_**Promise to by more on time next go round.**_

_**Review? Please?**_

_**~Ariyah's Rider**_


	6. Ch 6: Mama Said

_**Chapter 4: Mama Said…**_

Orion kicked a bit of rubble across what was left of the used to be floor of Tony's used to be house in Malibu. Tony himself was standing on the edge of the cliff looking down at the sea below. She came up next to him, smirking wickedly, words dragging out in a sarcastic droll.

"Tough day."

* * *

_Three Days Earlier_

"Packing, why are you packing, are we going somewhere? Leaving, you leaving?" Orion asked as Pepper shoved things into a bag on the couch. "Is this about that explosion that tried to kill Happy?"

"No, it's about Tony. He just gave the world our home address, invited them to kill us. So_ we are leaving_." Pepper snapped back.

"Oh. Well that was clever." Orion replied nonchalantly, still watching as Pepper packed her bag.

"Clever? It was stupid!"

"Clearly. I was being sarcastic. Not the point though. Point is, what makes you think you can get the great Tony Stark out of this house? He wants these guys to come blow him to bits, whatever the reason may be, but he does." Pepper scoffed at Orion, but the younger (older?) woman merely shrugged and went back to what she had been doing, scrounging for food.

"How can you be so, so…"

"Relaxed?" Orion offered, closing the pantry door.

"Yes, relaxed. We have to go!" Pepper cried, though some small part of her mind knew that nothing she said would convince Tony or Orion to leave the house.

"Meh. I've been in worse situations." Orion shrugged again and Pepper paused. "Think of it this way. Tony's not leaving, because he's a fool and he's too cocky for his own good. So, would you rather be here when crap goes down, or do you want to be elsewhere watching it on the news?"

"It's suicide."

"Obviously." Orion mumbled. "But I'd rather die trying to help than live to see the next sunrise when I could have done something. But that's just me. Feel free to leave if you like." The pilot jutted her thumb toward the door.

"I don't get it." Pepper sighed.

"Nobody does. Don't try, all you get for your trouble is a massive headache." Pepper stalked out of the room and Orion went back to her food search. There was some conversation going on in the background, probably Tony and Pepper duking it out. Orion mostly tuned it out, she'd heard this pair argue more times than she cared to count. She preferred just to focus on her foraging.

Orion had the incredible ability to tune out the world around her, to simply refuse to pay any attention to people and get on with her own little life in her own little world. Under normal circumstances, she was incredibly observant and nothing passed her eyes unnoticed. But, at the moment the outside world ceased to exist until something interesting happened. She was very content to not give a rip about whatever they were on about. Something about old girlfriends. _Oh this again. Have we gotten to the rabbit yet? I told him she wouldn't like it, but did he listen, nooo, he didn't. Because I'm just a street kid with an eidetic memory, what could I possible know about women, not more than the great and illustrious Tony Stark, heck no. All I am capable of knowing is how to play the guitar and cook. And how to create a neural interface matrix to remotely call and command the Iron Man suit, but hey, doesn't everyone? I swear to God, if he does not get his head on straight in the next five days, I will take it from him. And seriously, challenging a terrorist to blow your house to bits, not the wisest of moves. Though the speech was pretty badass. Honest to God though, Tony, you cannot see what lies directly in front of you, you shove people away like their going to hurt you when all they want to do is help? Freaking blind man. And people wonder why I generally dislike the majority of the populace_.

_Is that a bomb?_

"Uh…Tony?" And company which was now Pepper and one other person. _When did she get here? Dammit Orion, focus. __Bomb__._ "We should start running now."

The warning came a bit late, and Orion cursed herself for her rambling introspection, she would have noticed earlier if not for that. The world exploded, it was a familiar sensation to Orion, who had been blown to bits far to many times in her life, but she could see clear panic in most everyone else's faces. He hit the wall behind with a distinct thunk, sliding to the floor and shaking her head. A few feet away from her Tony was on the ground, unprotected. Hadn't he been in his suit a second ago? The ceiling went, and Orion was about to try to reach him, but some one else, probably Pepper, in the suit blocked the falling debris.

"I got you." Ah Pepper, coming in for the rescue. That was a new one.

"I got you first. Like I said, we have to leave." Orion wanted to scowl at Tony's remark, but soon enough she was too busy, once more, trying not to get blown up. Her charge, who's name she was still ignorant of, was out cold. Luckily, she was light as a feather to some one like Orion, who picked her up and pulled both of them out of the house, which was being consumed by explosions. Pepper was just behind them, but Orion couldn't see Tony. Frankly though, he was the least of her worries. The man had an uncanny way of getting into and out of trouble, and hopefully this was not the day his luck ran out.

She made it out the door and well into the driveway when she heard Pepper yelp behind her. A glance behind told her that the suit was detaching and flying back to Tony.

"Pep, come on, that is not a safe distance." She yelled, shifting the woman in her arms and waiting for Pepper to catch up.

"Oh my God, Tony." She cried, watching as the house was destroyed.

"I'm sure he's just dandy fine, we have to go _now_." Orion urged, jerking her head away from the house. Slowly, much to slowly for Orion's liking, Pepper followed, and there was an explosion behind them. "See, that's one down." Another blew seconds afterwards. "Two. He's fine." Orion jerked when the house was consumed by yet another fire ball, and began to fall away from the cliff. Her eyes grew wide and Pepper screamed. Orion put her charge on the ground and ran to grab Pepper, who was running toward the carnage. She grabbed the CEO's arm and pulled her backwards.

"Let me go!" Pepper yelled, trying to get away from Orion's iron grip. The pilot held fast, gazing out at the ocean. Ok, maybe this was the day Tony's luck ran out. "Where is your gun?" Pepper asked, eyes blazing. Orion narrowed her eyes skeptically. "Shoot at them!"

"Firstly, my gun is under half a mansion at the moment, and secondly shoot at them?" Orion asked indignantly.

"YES!" Pepper yelled. "Why don't you have your gun?"

"Typically I don't wear it while eating breakfast…" Orion trailed off, looking back out to the ocean. "Pepper, Pepper look at me, Tony will be fine."

"Did you just see that?!"

"Yes, I did." Orion sighed. "However, this is Tony Stark we're talking about. The man is like a cockroach, you can't kill him with a nuke. Literally." Pepper ran a hand through her hair, and Orion looked around them once more. "We," she began, motioning to herself, Pepper and the mystery woman, "need to go to the hospital. Nowish. And then a hotel."

"No, no we'll call the police…"

"Generally attack helicopters is the army's area of expertise." Orion mumbled, but Pepper went on without acknowledging her.

"…we'll figure this out."

"Uhh, hospital. I think I may have a concussion." Orion said, rubbing her head.

"You didn't have a concussion when Loki hit you with his staff." Orion half nodded, pursing her lips.

"Fair enough." Orion looked to the other woman, still on the ground, and pointed at her. "She may have a concussion. In fact I'm quite certain she does."

"I'll call an ambulance." Pepper said, pulling out her phone. Orion looked around, eyes settling on the house, distantly hearing Pepper on the phone with emergency services. _This is insane. Who does this guy think he is, blowing people's homes to bits? Tony you utter fool! You've gone and gotten us all exploded. And maybe killed yourself. I swear to God, if you're not dead right now, when they find you, I will come and kill you myself._ The pilot snuck into the rubble of the house, to what was left of where she had been trying to eat before. She may not have had her gun on her at the time of mass chaos, but it was in the room. There was a little rummaging around, but she managed to find the colt .45 pistol among the remains of house. She was tucking it into the back of her jeans when she came back out of the house. Pepper was just putting her phone away, and let out a sigh.

"You act like you've done this before." Pepper said, seeing how calm Orion seemed.

"I've been around the block once or twice." Orion smiled. "You're Tony Stark's girlfriend, you should probably get used to this crap." She motioned to what was left of the house with a sarcastic smirk across her face. Pepper didn't look so amused.

"He's dead."

"You don't know that." Orion countered.

"Looks pretty certain to me." Pepper motioned to the house, making Orion turn around, give it another once over, before looking back to the ginger.

"You know how it's the law that you're innocent until proven guilty?" Pepper nodded slowly. "Well Tony is alive until proven dead, ok? So for now, he's alive. Habeas corpus, and all of that legal Latin nonsense."

"I thought you knew Latin." Pepper commented.

"That makes it nonsense I know, but nonsense nonetheless." Orion smiled once more, before spotting movement behind Pepper. "Ah, sleeping beauty awakens at last." She passed Pepper to crouch down next to the woman who was beginning to come around. Pepper joined her, helping the woman sit up.

"Ugh, what happened?"

"We were exploded." Orion said, wry look plastered on her face. "Your skull and the wall became the best of friends."

"Orion, please." Pepper said curtly, cutting the woman off. "Are you alright?"

"My head hurts." She said, putting a hand to her forehead. "Who are you, exactly?" Orion opened her mouth to answer, but Pepper cut her off.

"She's Orion Cooper. Orion this is Maya Hansen, Maya this is Orion." Pepper said, then leaned in close to Orion. "Be civil." She whispered, and Orion put her hands up, standing and backing off.

"You know, I gotta wonder who's gonna get here first, EMTs or the press."

"The press." Pepper said. "It's always the press."

"Do you want me to shoot at them?" Orion joked, ridiculous and infectious grin plastered on her face, Pepper only scowled. "I'll take that as a no."

* * *

True to form, the press showed up first, but only because they had heard about explosions before the EMTs had. The house, or rather what was left of it, was surrounded by all sorts of vehicles, lights flashing, reflecting on the house in shades of white, blue and red like a bad, unchoreographed lightshow. Orion was giving her account to the police for about the fifth time, while she could see a number of the press trying to get a picture of the unknown (herself) at the scene of the crime. She was not a known friend of Stark's, in fact she was a total nobody. Let them take their pictures, they'd be hard pressed to find out a blessed thing about her.

Orion was only half listening to what the officer was telling her, though she was filing it all dutifully away incase he asked her something. Her focus was upon Maya Hansen. Where was this woman from? Why did she show up now, of all times? Orion decided then and there, she did not like this woman. Maya Hansen was knee deep in some kind of crap, and she was trying to cover her, or her boss's, backside. She probably should have paid more attention when the woman first showed up, all of this was speculation at the moment, but Orion did not trust Maya with Pepper. As of right now, Orion Cooper was Virginia Potts's bodyguard.

"Ma'am?" The officer's voice pulled Orion back to reality. "Were you listening to me ma'am?"

"I was. You were rambling on about suspects and stuff, so for the sixth time today; I am just a friend of Tony's, visiting for a bit before going back to NYC. Or that was the plan. Now I cannot leave the area. You were talking about that too." The officer blinked, then nodded.

"You three should also see a therapist, to ensure you suffer no mental trauma." Orion squinted a little at the man.

"Uhh, I think I'll pass on that. For now, I think we're going to lay low."

"We can put you into protective custody." The cop offered. Orion shook her head.

"Then people know where we are. I'd rather like to avoid that." The cop looked skeptical, but shrugged, going off to finish his work. Orion found Pepper inside the house, taking one of the Iron Man helmets off her head, relief and anxiety glinting in her eyes. "Pepper?"

"Tony's alive." She said, smiling at Orion. "You were right."

"I'm good like that. Do we know where he is?"

"He didn't say." Pepper seemed irritated at that, and Orion was right there with her. "The line is secure so you couldn't trace it… He told us, well me, to stay safe for a while. That he'd be back once he's taken care of things."

"Things…sounds like Tony's going to bash some heads in." Orion smiled and put a hand on Pepper's shoulder. "Good for him. Now, your new friend Maya-"

"She is not my friend. She's one of Tony's one night stands from…I don't know how long ago." Pepper sighed and shook her head. "I don't know why I bother with him."

"Cause you love him." Orion smiled. Pepper narrowed her eyes. "Slap me later. Maya, your new not-friend, is off to the hospital, and I want to keep an eye on her."

"What for?"

"Paranoia." Orion shrugged nonchalantly. "Call me crazy, but I don't like her, she smells fishy. Like a snitch."

"Right." Pepper dragged out the word, clearly not ready to believe Orion's gut feelings. "Well, I'm not going to let her go off alone, her life is in as much danger as ours." Orion made a double thumbs up and her face spilt into a smile.

"Great, you take care of her while I watch her for signs of malicious mal-intent." Pepper rolled her eyes and took off to where Maya sat in an ambulance, Iron Man helm still firmly clutched in her hand. Orion watched her go, for a moment, blowing a stray hair from her face. Her fingers drummed on her thigh lazily as she looked at the carnage around her. Then something clicked in her head and she jumped, running to catch up to Pepper.

Some bodyguard she was.

* * *

After a brief stint at the hospital, Pepper called a car and started the drive to Maya's home. Orion was sprawled in the back seat, legs extended as much as her large frame would allow, one arm thrown behind her head, which was resting in a less than comfortable position on the door, her neck seeming strained. Her eyes were directed out the back window, watching as the highway lights passed by and trying to catch glimpses of stars past the blinding light. Her ears, however, were directed to those in the front seat. Pepper and Maya were chatting, well perhaps chatting was not a good way to put it. It was a bit of a serious conversation.

"I think my boss works for the Mandarin." Maya said, replying to Pepper's question about why she was at the house. "So if you want to talk about it, we should go someplace safe."

"Safe. Yeah I agree with the lady. Safe sounds good to me." Orion said, not moving from her position. Maya looked back at her and scowled.

"Thank you for support, but I can't take you seriously like that."

"I have no intentions of you taking me seriously." Orion countered, taking her gaze away from the window to smile at the scientist, before turning back to her attempts at stargazing.

"Your boss works for the Mandarin, you think? But Tony says you're a botanist, so..." Pepper left the question unfinished, and Maya let an exasperated sigh.

"That figures. What I actually am is a biological DNA coder running a team of forty out of a privately-funded think tank, but sure you can call me a botanist."

"Whoa, back up there." Orion reached a hand out to the front seats, pulling herself up off the back seat and leaning in on the conversation.

"You going to join us?"

"Yeah, and now I do want you to take me at least a little seriously." Orion said, leaning on the center console of the car. "You said DNA coding?"

"Yes. But you wouldn't really understand it." Maya replied, trying to dismiss the brawn of the little group.

"This boss of yours, does he have a name?" Pepper asked, not wanting Orion to get hostile, but the brawn couldn't care less about the shot at her intelligence

"Yeah, Aldrich Killian."

"Pretty boy?" Orion asked, turning to Pepper, who was staring at Maya in shock. "The dude who had extremis? That guy?"

"How do you know about that?" Pepper asked, glaring at Orion.

"I may or may not have looked at security tapes." Orion replied with a smile. "Anywho, that stuff, Extremis, does not sound safe. At all. Not in the hands of madman."

"Not in the hands of anyone." Pepper sighed. "We need to get someplace safe."

"I second that." Orion said.

"You're good at laying low, right?" Pepper said, turning to Orion.

"Yeah…go to a hotel, cheap one. I'll pay, cash." Pepper nodded and Orion relaxed back into the seat. "You know, DNA recoding can have some very, very bad side effects."

"You really, really wouldn't understand any of this or how it works." Orion pursed her lips and nodded slowly.

"Yeah, sure. It's not like I'm a victim of it or anything." Maya turned around quickly and glared. Orion flashed her a vicious smile. "You people aren't the only ones to play with adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine, dearie." Maya took a deep breath and turned to Pepper.

"Can we trust her?" She whispered. Pepper cast a glance backward, but nodded.

"We can. She just doesn't like you." Pepper glared at Orion, who looked away. Maya turned back around in her seat, trying to fix Orion with a stare, but it wasn't working.

"Look, we're on the same side, you and me."

"For the moment." Orion sighed, and then slid back into her former position, staring at the stars and highway lights. Maya narrowed her eyes, but settled herself back facing forward. Pepper let out a sigh, and stretched her eyes wide in an effort to keep them open. Just get to a hotel.

* * *

"What happened? Fun fact; before he built rockets for the Nazis, the idealistic Werner von Braun dreamed of space travel, he star gazed. Do you know what he said when the first V2 hit London? The rocket performed perfectly, it just landed on the wrong planet. See we all begin wide-eyed, pure science. And then the ego steps in, the obsession. And you look up, you're a long way from shore." Maya sighed, sitting on one of the two, small creaky beds in their room.

"You can't be too hard on yourself, Maya. I mean you gave your research to a think tank." Pepper assured calmly.

"Killian built that think tank on military contracts." Maya sighed.

"Military isn't bad, you know. And what Killian is up to, that is not military in the least. You were duped, it happens to the best of us." Orion said, pulling away from where she had stationed herself at the door.

"I didn't want it to be for war."

"That I do not entirely believe, but that's just me." Orion said. "Think of it this way, at least you looked up. At least you saw."

"You don't like me." Maya said, glowering at Orion.

"Well I don't like a lot of people, don't let it get to you." Orion replied calmly. "I'll be next door." She said, leaving slowly. She didn't want to be in a different room, but Pepper insisted that she was fine with Maya and that Orion should have her own room.

On the list of things Orion did not see coming, this was pretty high. It took an awful lot to knock Orion out, and her assailant thought he killed her with a tire iron to the head.

This day just kept getting better and better.

* * *

Orion rather expected to wake up in a hospital, considering why she had passed out in the first place. But no, she was on the same ground she'd been dropped to with a tire iron. And now her head throbbed like no tomorrow. She pushed herself off the ground with a groan, and found the door to Pepper and Maya's room open, and no one inside.

"Crap…" Orion growled to herself. She took a deep breath, shaking her head. "Alright, time to do your own work, Cooper. Find this bastard and lambaste him." In Orion's mind, all things were going back to Killian. The Mandarin, no longer a player, there was something not right about this whole thing and Killian, he was the epicenter of the problem. Judging by the sun's height, she'd been out for around 12 hours, give or take a few. So she was behind the eight ball.

Time to play catch up.

Tony had been MIA since the altercation at the mansion, there was little chance at getting to him. Both him and the suit were well off the grid, so there was no contacting him. Pepper was out of commission, and if Orion's suspicions were correct about Killian, there would be no way to track her.

_Who you gonna call?_

"Rhodes." Orion smiled to herself and pulled out her phone. "JARVIS, get my James Rhodes."

* * *

"So, you lost the War Machine armor." Orion asked. A sigh came over the other line.

"Iron Patriot. And yes. Tony knows." Rhodey replied. "You said they have Pepper?"

"Yeah, took her right out from under me. Tony will have my head when he finds me, or when I find him, however it goes." Orion sighed. "Where is crap going down?"

"Well, Tony's in Miami."

"And I'm clear across the country." Orion growled.

"Well, you are better off than me."

"Not important. Where, in exact directions, is Tony, and how can we help him?"

"Meet us at the Mandarin's estate. I'll send you the location once we hang up."

"Yeah, you do that. And by the way, our bad guy is Killian. I haven't got a blessed idea how he fits in this mess, but I am dang sure it goes back to him." Rhodey mumbled something before saying his goodbye and hanging up. Her phone pinged as it got the location from Rhodey and she tapped it inbetween her thumb and forefinger, thinking about how to get from Malibu to Miami. Car would take too long, boats and trains were out of the question, planes were a pain in the backside and it wasn't as though she could make off with one. Of course there was one thing…but her boss would hate her…

_Ah, screw it._

Orion ran through her contacts and began walking as she put it to her ear. "Hiya Nick. Don't ask how I got the number I live with Tony Stark. Yeah, I have a favor to ask…"

* * *

_Back at Tony's mansion, one day later._

"Tough day? That's the best you got?" Tony turned to Orion, drawing his eyes away from the ocean in front of them. "I was nearly melted, had three panic attacks, had to save Air Force One, the president, Pepper almost died, on your watch by the way, and you say tough day?!"

"It was." Orion defended with a smile. "You forgot about blowing a port in Miami sky high." Tony scoffed and looked back out to the sea. "Three panic attacks. You know, it's really normal. You nearly died."

"I'm Tony Stark. I do not have panic attacks."

"Uh, yeah you do." Orion laughed a little. "Who you are has nothing to do with whether or not you get panic attacks."

"This didn't happen after Afghanistan." Tony countered.

"That's because after Afghanistan you had a mission, a new purpose. You had a conviction and you had to set things right. That kept your mind from dwelling on the horrors of what happened, and focused on solving what you had done." Orion said. "This time, the battle was over. Loki was gone and all was well in the world, except we had all just been in the middle of a horrific battlefield, and this time there was nothing to blow to pieces. You were never a soldier, Tony. New York was the first real battlefield you ever saw, your first glimpse of war, and it was a hard one. That gets to people, it got to you." Orion turned to him and smiled. "It's normal. Trust me."

"So how do you deal with it?"

"Well I wasn't the one to fly a nuke into space, so I can't relate too much." Orion said, but then sighed.

"Compartmentalizing? Shoving it down? Boxing it all up and forgetting it?" Orion let out a breathy laugh at Tony's slew of options.

"Those are all the same thing. And no, none of them." Orion blew a stray hair from her face. "Do you really want to know?" Tony nodded vigorously, and Orion turned her electric gaze out to the sunset once more. "I remember it. I recall every single bloody detail and I come to terms with what I saw, what I did. And then, I let it go." She turned to Tony, pushing her hand out and throwing her fingers open as if letting go of some invisible item. "You see, the things that haunt us are the things we hold onto with the tightest grip. You flew into space with a nuke on your shoulders. You nearly died. You were very harshly confronted with your mortality and that haunts you. You are not the invincible Iron Man, you are the very killable Tony Stark. And that scares you, which is also entirely normal." Orion pursed her lips. "But you didn't ask for advice, did you."

"No, but I think I'll learn not to mind." Tony sighed looking down at his shoes. Orion smiled and turned her gaze back to the sunset, Tony soon joining her, and for a moment they just stood in silence.

"You know you have a girlfriend, you should probably go take care of her. Or let her take care of you, you know how it is." Orion smiled at him lightly, giving him a sidelong glance. Tony let a short laugh out of his nose and looked down, smirk across his face.

"Yeah I know." Orion sucked some air in through her teeth, making a small whistle-squelching sound. Tony shuffled his feet a little, and gazed out at the sea through the top of his head.

"You gonna go?" Orion asked.

"This was a nice house."

"Pepper?" Orion suggested, turning her torso as if to motion behind them with her shoulders, while her hands were kept firmly in her jean pockets.

"Yeah." Tony said, a smile crossing his face. "Box of chocolates you said?"

"Better than a giant rabbit." Orion smiled, barely holding in a laugh. "Go get the girl, hero."

"Hero?"

"Yeah." Orion smiled. "Right up there with cops and firemen."

"What about soldiers?"

"Eh, not quite. You said you didn't want to be a soldier any way." Tony nodded, a little sideways, and looked back out over the ocean.

"Who's the hero?"

"Huh?" Orion turned to him, raising an eyebrow.

"You asked me once who made up who. What do you think?"

"I think that a titanium gold alloy, fully of weapons, powered by an arch reactor and with a wicked cool English butler operating system needs a pilot to do anything." Orion smiled. "And you kick ass without the suit. Man makes the suit, Tony. Not the other way around."

"You sure about that?"

"Sure as the sun rises and God is in heaven."

"That was pretty sure up-"

"Don't even start this conversation, I can and will beat you." Tony put his hands up and turned around. "Go get the girl." Orion nodded her head behind them, and smirked.

"Yeah." Tony smiled and started off.

Tony walked away slowly and Orion let out a sigh. "I could get used to this." She said to herself, pursing her lips and nodding. "I could I could."

* * *

**_Not really sure if I'm done. This bit of plot line is over now, though. Hope you liked it_**

**_As ever, please read and review. Thanks for sticking with me, even though I was horribly late this go round. _**

**_~Ariyah's Rider_**


	7. Ch 7: Did You Bury Your Heart?

_**Chapter 5: Did You Bury Your Heart?**_

Thunder bellowed like an angry beast, rain pelted windows like little glass stones shattering on impact and streaking like liquid streamers down the tinted surface. It was an impressive storm for mid May to conjure up, though the lightning stayed inside the low hanging grey clouds as the sky cried, making them shine like a light flickering underneath a pillow. There was nothing unnatural to this deluge, it had been predicted the day before, weather men telling everyone to remember their umbrellas. The sidewalk was a sea of people, as it ever was, jostling and trying to keep their generic umbrellas over top of their heads while they stared intently at the concrete beneath their feet, women dancing about to avoid puddles as they stalked along in fancy shoes. The umbrella-less held books, coats, bags, anything they could grab over their heads as they struggled to call a cab or duck into their destination among the shops and stores they shuffled by. Wind whipped about between the buildings, making hands tighten around umbrella handles as the air tried it's very hardest to wrest them from their owners grasp.

It was not a pleasant day in New York City. It was about to become less so to one New Yorker in particular. Walking along the outside of sidewalk, not fond of crowds in the least, a tall red head found herself suddenly, unceremoniously, drenched by a passing cab. She straightened up, pausing and staring ahead as water dripped down her face, sparing a breath to blow a drop from her nose and to get a stand of wavy cherry-black hair out of her mouth. She cast her eyes up at the black umbrella she was carrying and then down at her now soaked coat, shirt, and jeans, then shoved it into the hands of a passing umbrella-less citizen. He fumbled with it for a second before turning to give her a look, and then his blue eyes widened.

"Orion Cooper?" He asked, before gathering himself and his manners. "Sorry, Miss Cooper, I-"

"Hush Rodgers, Orion is just fine. I though you were in DC." She said, looking the soldier over quickly, crossing her arms.

"I thought you were in California with Stark." He countered.

"Nah, though I was up until a little while ago. Just him and Pepper in Malibu right now, I'm in the tower with Banner most of the time now. You're working with Natasha, for SHIELD, right?" Steve nodded carefully, then tried to hand her the umbrella. "Don't, it's not like I'm getting any wetter." She smiled and Steve laughed a little. "What you back in the City for? Come to see how rebuilding is going?"

"I suppose that's part of it. I got some time off from Director Fury so I thought I'd come…"

"Home?" Orion finished for him, and his shoulders fell a little, eyes drifting to the concrete. "Hey, I know this old restaurant that's from before your time, wanna go?"

"No I-"

"Come on, it'll do you good to relax a little."

"I don't need to relax." Orion narrowed her eyes.

"Fine then, live a little. Sing in the rain, jump in a puddle, go out to lunch, you know, normal people things." The pilot said, but the Captain only shook his head slowly.

"I can't."

"Why not? Are you busy? Some people need some teaching, cause I can help if you like." Steve shook his head, and Orion let her arms fall to her sides and drew her maroon eyebrows together, bright blue eyes shining like beacons of worry and light in the grey surroundings. "Steve, something's wrong, what's wrong?" The super soldier gazed up at the sky around the brim of the umbrella for a moment, sighing.

"I can't."

"No, you won't." Orion countered, then shook her head. "Will you at least come to the tower with me, it's terrible lonely up there."

"I'm busy, Miss Cooper."

"For the umpteenth time, my name is Orion. Calling me 'miss' is an insult to young, unmarried women everywhere." Steve let out a small, mirthless laugh and shook his head. "What are you doing? Oh, you're not on break are you?" Rodgers nodded sheepishly. "Figures. Well, Fury hates my guts so I'll let you about your business, whatever that may be. But only if you promise to visit as soon as you wrap up."

"Alright." He smiled, shaking his head.

"You swear?"

"I promise, I'll see you as soon as I finish my job." He replied and handed her the umbrella, but she shoved it back into his hands.

"Give it back when you see me." She smirked and, somehow, melted into the crowd around them, resuming her journey home.

* * *

"I thought you brought an umbrella with you." Bruce's confused voice brought Orion out of her thoughts, and she looked up at the small, mild mannered scientist sitting at a table in front of her, papers covered in math spread out in front of him, pen in one hand and glasses sliding down his nose.

"I did. Cab drenched me, I ditched it because it was too windy and I was wet anyway. Don't worry, we'll get it back." Bruce frowned but did not question her. He was living in the tower full time now, doing research mostly in the medical field, though he dabbled in physics still. Orion was often looking over his shoulder, her insatiable appetite to learn something, anything, often found him explain things to her, teaching her. He used to dumb it down, but he soon found that she had a ravenous intellect, even if she was illiterate. He'd tried to teach her to read, but it only ended with her throwing the book at the wall. Orion was not one for patience with herself, though she seemed to have vast wells of it for anyone else.

"Hungry?" He asked, pointing his pen at the kitchen.

"You know I am." She smiled and slid over to the large bar area, rummaging through the fridge and pantry. She was constantly hungry it seemed. "Bruce I have an important question to ask."

"What sort of important question?" The scientist asked calmly, still focused on his work. Orion pulled a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water.

"What do you think of this Avengers thing? It's been a year now, and the only people that have any real contact are you, me, and Tony. Heck, I hardly count in the first place." Orion sighed, running a finger on the top of her glass. Bruce paused in his math, though he did not look up. He pondered her words, looking at his paper. Orion and Bruce had lived together for around four months now. She had returned to New York after the incident with the Mandarin and the mess that followed it. Tony had blown most of his suits up afterwards, though from Orion told Bruce, he still had six incase the need arose. He was rebuilding his home, and getting some…quality time with Pepper. He was apparently in much better condition than before, and Banner knew that Orion had more than a little to do with that. He'd felt her effects himself. There was just something about her that compelled him to be the best he could be. He wasn't quite sure what it was, perhaps it was that she was always striving to be the best of herself, perhaps it was the belief she placed in him, the subtle but powerful advice she gave, or maybe it was something more active that she did. He didn't know, and didn't question it. Her very presence was like therapy, her calmness kept him calm. The Other Guy liked her too, he found her funny. She was cathartic.

"I don't know." He finally said. It was true, he didn't know what to think of all of this madness. "I'm not sure whether Fury really wants me or the Other Guy." Orion shrugged, missing the unasked question. It wasn't like her, her mind must be elsewhere, Bruce figured.

"I don't know what he wants from me. I think he is merely trying to keep tabs on both of us, making sure we're under his thumb if we do something he doesn't like." She mused aloud, taking a drink of her water. Most people would have thought her paranoid for such words, but she was anything but. She was jabbing at Fury. She knew he had cameras and microphones in the room, she was staring at one right that second. She found it much to entertaining to poke at him like this, or rather at the guy who was watching them, who would proceed to tell Fury what she said. She didn't trust the man, shady government organizations were not her thing after all, but she understood the need for them. She more than most knew the danger of being outgunned by those hovering in the stars. Her time at the SGC had taught her nearly all she knew, and it had taught her that sometimes, secrets were a good thing. People couldn't always take the truth. Of course, she had never dubbed herself fit to judge what they should and should not know, but she respected Fury. He was not a man to keep secrets for secrets sake.

"I don't mind." Bruce sighed. "At least if I loose it there's someone to stop me." Orion jerked back to the room, narrowing her blue eyes.

"Don't talk like that." She said sternly. "No one will have to stop you because you're not going to loose it. You are a good man with a good heart, you are not going to go mad and destroy Manhattan." Orion was looking at him, eyes burning with fierce conviction. "Don't believe the lie that you're a monster, you are everything but." Brown eyes drifted downwards again, fingers scratched at math ridden pages.

Was she right?

She always was. It was in her nature to be right. It was what she strove for, to be right, to be in the right. As she would say, to be on God's side. He did not believe God had a side, he did not believe in God, but it didn't matter, her belief was what kept her on the straight and narrow, and that was good enough for him.

He didn't answer her, not vocally. She knew enough to see through his body language that he had heard what she had to say, and that was all she could ask for. Here, she was doing a good thing, making sure that Bruce wasn't facing his demon on his own.

"I'm going to go punch things." Orion said suddenly, putting her glass in the sink and sliding out of the room down the hall.

* * *

She had been in the gym four hours, not breaking a sweat. A punching bag had already met it's end in the wall, but there was nothing she could really do about her strength. She had warned Tony about it, but never done anything, she had plans but never enacted them. Didn't matter much to her anyway, she didn't mind cleaning up, it gave her something more to do. She grew bored to easily, and when she got bored she got introspective and that was never good. Introspection tended to create problems for her, dredging up unpleasant memories and questions she had long since laid to rest. She could not let her mind wander too much, not on the topic of herself at least.

"Bad day?" The voice pulled her from her introspection on introspection, and she found herself facing Steve Rodgers, holding her black umbrella. "Bruce told me you were down here. Thought I should return this."

"Thanks." She smiled, and pulled her hair tie out, letting the wild, tight curls fall down around her shoulders and down her back. He'd never seen her hair down before, she always kept it up in a messy bun on the back of her head, but now it was let free. It looked almost like springs, swirling around her face like twisted ribbons of maroon, deep red, and nearly black. He found himself wondering, not for the first time, where she was from. Other than the Bronx, of course. "So, what was it that brought you to the City?"

"I had business." Steve replied. Orion raised an eyebrow and grabbed a towel off the ropes of the boxing ring, rubbing her face down with it before letting it tuck her hair back against her neck, hanging onto each end of it.

"I was just talking to Bruce about the Avengers, I'll ask you the same. What do you think of it?" She asked, and Steve's eyes fell to the floor. "I don't know what to make of it. We fell apart after the attack, no one even asked Tony if he was ok after the Mandarin debacle. I know we each have our lives, our paths to walk, but a call would have been nice."

"I was in France." Steve said. "I only heard about it when I got back. Isn't Stark retiring or something?"

"Eh…downsizing his arsenal of suits, that's all." Orion replied. "What about Clint, does Natasha talk about him?"

"He's still in rehab." The soldier replied solemnly. "He's not doing so well."

"Why don't you send him over here?" Orion asked, whipping the towel off her shoulders and putting back on the boxing ring ropes. "I know what it's like to be under another's control, maybe I could help him."

"I don't think he wants help." Steve replied. "And how do you know about mind control, that's not exactly basic training."

"I…do you really want to know?" Steve nodded and Orion nodded and moved her hands back to pulling her hair away from her neck. She turned around, finger tracing out a long, old scar on the back of her neck. He'd seen it many times before, her hair was always off her neck after all. "See that scar?" She said, then dropped her hair and turned back to face him. "Something called a Goa'uld, a symbiote parasite that goes in through the back of your neck and latches onto your brainstem. It controls your movement, speech, everything you do, traps you inside your head. Your actions are not your own, but see and feel everything, because it's _your_ _body_ doing it all. Like being a prisoner in your own mind, like looking through a window with no way out. I had one of those for three months, and it made me do _horrible _things."

"How did you get rid of it?" Steve asked, frowning harshly. Orion shook her head.

"It was killed and taken out of me." She gave him a lopsided smile. "People had other things to do with me, and the parasite got in the way, so it had to go. Not that I was about to argue. But as I was saying before, I know what it's like to be made to do something against your will, and I know it takes a long time to get over. It's hard to think that you didn't do it when it's your hands drenched in blood." Steve nodded slowly.

"I'll tell him if I see him." Orion smiled broadly, then nodded her head to the sparring ring.

"How long has it been since you had someone as strong as yourself to spar with?" She asked, leaning back against it.

"Fury tells me you're almost as strong as Thor." He countered. Orion chewed on her lip a little, and shrugged.

"Strong, but unskilled." She said, then rested her hands on her knees, leaning forward and almost begging. "Come on, Rodgers, I've got no one to practice with. I can beat the tar out of normal people but we're not dealing with normal anymore. I can't just knock people out with one blow any longer, I need to have some basic skill I think." Steve tightened his jaw a little, but nodded.

"I can teach you a little." Orion's smile grew massive and she slid into the ring. Her little ruse had worked. Sure, she wasn't the world's most skilled fighter but she was no pushover. She could handle herself very easily, she didn't need more training, though it never hurt. But he would never know that. Oh no. Because a man who was lost in the world like him, it would do his heart good to be the expert once more.

And if she could give him that comfort, she would. Besides, he could easily teach her, and Orion was always eager to learn from a master.

A life on the streets had hardened Orion quite a lot. She was not always 6'4" and 185 pounds. Her natural stature was actually 5'9" and 128 pounds, in other words, skinny as crap, but tall enough. She knew a thing or two about getting people away from her, and after she grew five inches and sixty pounds, she used her newfound muscle to its full advantage. She knew how to make a weak blow count, so her strong blows were deadly. But she had also taught herself, so she was pretty unskilled and prone to opening herself up to attack. She was by no means wary, and she had very poor defensive skills. So that was most of what Steve was teaching her. She was a quick learner, he found very quickly, and he was truly enjoying himself. It was a long time since he'd been able to spar with someone who outmatched him in strength and stamina, and for the first time in a long time, he was tired. It was good to feel tired, to have adrenaline pumping through his veins and have a runner's high as the endorphins coursed through his brain. This was _good_.

Steve blocked a blow of Orion's grabbing her arm firmly. Next thing he knew he had the wind knocked out of him, and was staring at the ceiling. Orion stood over him, arms crossed and wicked smirk plastered on her smug face, hair escaping from the bun she had tied it in.

"Victory is mine?" She said, half asking. He only nodded in reply. "So let's see, that's 1 out of 10 for me, right? Well, I won once, that's good." Steve laughed a little and got up off the ground.

"Something tells me you could beat me anytime you liked." He crossed his arms and Orion cocked her head. "You were going easy."

"I didn't want to break bone. I can crush steel with my bare hands, sue me if I go a little light. Besides, what's the point of beating you, then I don't learn anything. You learn by losing, from your failures, not your victories."

"We can learn from our victories too." The soldier countered. "Like the battle of New York, we can learn from that." Orion straightened up, telling him to go on. "We can learn that there are threats out there, how to combat them. We learn just as much from what works as we do from what doesn't."

"I guess so." Orion mumbled. "Throwing you on your back seems pretty effective to me." Steve smirked and took a stance across from her.

"Let's see you do it again." He narrowed his eyes at her. "No holds barred." Orion shrugged and stepped up to him.

"I apologize in advance."

Orion, true to form, lunged first, but Steve deftly moved out of her way, grabbing her arm and using her weight to send her to the ground. Her arm swept out, grabbing an ankle and ripping his foot out from under him. She was back on her feet quickly, but he was quicker, connecting a blow with her bad shoulder which sent her reeling backwards, clutching at it. Leaving chivalry to the dogs, he went for her face, hitting her temple _hard._ She kicked out at him, landing a blow to his sternum that sent him clear into the ropes across the ring. It took him a moment to catch his breath, but Orion didn't give him that kind of time. He was able to strike out at her collarbone and he felt it snap under the force of the blow, but there was no reaction but a yell and grimace, and a few steps back. Only now she could not use her right arm. With a hiss, she raised her other hand in surrender and Steve stepped back, straightening up.

"Ow." She said, pulling up to her full height. "Ow ow ow ow ow." Steve couldn't hold the small laugh that came through, though she did join him. "You broke my collarbone." She almost sounded impressed, and Steve knew why. A blow from Loki's metal staff hadn't broken bone, and he had. "Well I guess that's it for the day. You hungry, there's some food upstairs." The Captain shrugged and motioned for her to lead the way. She let go of her shoulder and looked down, as if to ensure that it wasn't sticking out, then slid out of the ring and grabbed her towel, motioning for her company to follow.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

"I've had worse." She smiled at him wryly, and he couldn't argue, she probably had. "It'll clear up by week's end, and eating helps. So let's eat, shall we?"

* * *

Steve hadn't originally planned on staying the night, it just sort of…happened. He and Orion had traded war stories over dinner, and he had actually really enjoyed the conversation. It was easy to forget she had been a soldier, she so didn't act like it, but in her heart she still was a soldier. Some things just never left a person, the military was one of those things. She had a lot of good things to say, a lot of wisdom hidden beneath that somewhat silly exterior. But something she had said was keeping him awake in this room she had told him was meant to be his. It was whirling around in his mind like a storm, he didn't even know what it meant.

_"I know it's rough, it's hard to loose people and to loose your world, all you know. I know it's hard to come back from war and have people expect you to live a normal life, to be fine and be able to do normal people things. But here's a tip, from someone who went down this road and found the horrible end. Don't try to step back, don't detach yourself. All that lies at the end of that road is pain and ash. Whatever it is you do, don't bury your heart."_

Bury your heart. What did that mean? Had he done it, tried to take himself out of it, to depersonalize it all and take a step back? Wasn't that what you were supposed to do, to stay alive, to stay sane?

_Don't bury your heart_.

Did she want him to open his hurting heart to life again, is that what she wanted? That meant risking getting broken. Again, and again and again.

_Whatever it is you do, don't bury your heart._ Those words would stick with him. Haunt his dreams. If he could sleep.

* * *

_**I am…moving along. I dunno, this is one of those things I wrote and just went "meh" when I read it over again. But, I can't seem to make it any better, don't know why. I must have rewritten it about five times, so I guess this is as good as it gets for this bit. This story will be over soon, probably. Unless some stray bit of plot bites me.**_


End file.
